Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. We'll open with an invocation. Heavenly Father, we ask your guidance, wisdom, and support to begin this meeting. We gather here today intent on doing good work. We seek to represent fairly and well those who have given this task. Help us engage in meaningful discussion. Give us clarity and strength to use our best skills in judgment. Bless this community, its residents, businesses, and visitors, and help us to continue doing good work in your name. Amen. Roll call, please.

Councilmember Hollingshead. Here. Councilmember Bracken. Present. Councilmember Davis. Here. Councilmember Brooks. Present. Councilmember Dietz. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Cavey. Yes. And Mayor Gray.

Here.

Thank you.

Please rise. I pledge allegiance.

to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

I'll go ahead and start with council comments. One of the things I wanted to mention that a lot of people maybe do know about or don't know about, I had the privilege last week of fishing with Project Healing Waters. Project Healing Waters is an organization that takes out veterans fishing. It's a great organization that's nationwide. If you're a veteran, I more than suggest that you go ahead and reach out to Project Healing Waters. They're a great organization. If you want to volunteer for them as well, they're fantastic. On that note, September is Suicide Awareness Month and Prevention Month. Our veterans and our young adults are the two highest. suicide rates in America. And it's just really, really sad. It's really hard. And I just encourage you to reach out to people who are in need. Remember, you can call 988 at a suicide hotline. It's completely anonymous, and it's a good number to call when you're in need. With that, Council Member Hollinson.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to thank all town staff for our open house last night. We shared an open house with Council Member Bracken, and we had a nice turnout. Our staff is always so prepared, has tons of answers for everybody in town. So there's a few more open houses coming up. Just encourage you to go and get informed. Thanks.

thank you customer bracket thank you mayor yeah just thanks for everybody that came out and uh shared the comments and wanted to learn more about district 3 and the town in general so uh appreciate you guys making the time and i know see a few faces out there today uh happy to follow up on anything needed appreciate it thank you councilmember davis

Yeah, I was fortunate enough to get a tour of the new rec center. This is going to be exciting, you guys. This thing is enormous. It looks big from the outside, but once you get inside and you start seeing all the basketball courts, pickleball courts, volleyball, everything, it's kind of separated from junior high skills to high school skills. Brian from the rec department got to walk me and Dave through that. I went last Wednesday. I think it took about an hour and a half just to walk through this building. This rec center is just going to be fantastic. So I just wanted to say thank you for the, I think it's Saunders that's working on that, and great group, and Brian just being the PM for that. He's just doing a phenomenal job at that thing. That thing is just turning out fantastic. So I just want to thank you all for that.

COUNCIL MEMBER BROOKS?

COUNCIL MEMBER BROOKS?

MR. MAYOR, THANK YOU. MR. MAYOR, THANK YOU. MR. MAYOR, THANK YOU. WE HAVE A COUPLE OF THINGS. WE HAVE A COUPLE OF THINGS. WE HAVE A COUPLE OF THINGS. FIRST, A SHOUT OUT TO PARKS AND FIRST, A SHOUT OUT TO PARKS AND FIRST, A SHOUT OUT TO PARKS AND REC AND EVERYBODY THAT HAS REC AND EVERYBODY THAT HAS REC AND EVERYBODY THAT HAS WORKED ON THE LOST CANYON, WORKED ON THE LOST CANYON, WORKED ON THE LOST CANYON, VOLUNTEERS, HAD AN OPPORTUNITY VOLUNTEERS, HAD AN OPPORTUNITY VOLUNTEERS, HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO GET OUT THERE TODAY AND GET TO GET OUT THERE TODAY AND Probably ill-advised for me to do so, but I decided to jog most of one of them. And so I've been chewing on some Advil. But I tell you, it is just absolutely gorgeous up there. And if you haven't been up there, I encourage you to come on up. There is the... The highlight of the open house tour of the year is coming up this Thursday. No offense to anybody else, but let's just be real. It's coming up this Thursday. It's my open house, and it's at the Lost Canyon open space. So if you have not yet been to Lost Canyon, come on up, 4 to 6 p.m. All the departments will be up there. I know Parks and Rec will be up there talking about the Lost Canyon, the trails they have, the trails that are coming. They're just groomed exceptionally well. It's just fantastic. It's such a great piece of land over a square mile of conservation easement. So I absolutely encourage you to come out and check it out if you've not yet done that. I do want to mention a couple of things coming up on the Chambers calendar, Castle Rock Chambers calendar. One, At the CAF Lowell Ranch, you know, we've got the Lowell Ranch is just south of town here, 430 to 630 p.m. on Wednesday, September 23rd. If you're in the nonprofit space in Castle Rock, this is a must attend. It basically is an opportunity to showcase your Castle Rock nonprofit, sharing missions, recruiting volunteers. It's something that you can sign up for on the Chamber website. And so I would encourage you to check that out if you're in that nonprofit space, particularly here in Castle Rock. And then finally, there is a town council candidate forum that the Chamber is hosting. I think on their website it still says that details will follow. That's on the 5th of October. So time and location I don't think has been completely put into stone yet. But if you want to know who's running for the seats, the three seats that are open up here, Mayor, District 3, and my seat, then definitely come out and listen to those candidates. A little lengthy, but thank you. Thank you. Council Member Dietz.

Thank you, Council. I look at everybody here tonight, and I am just grateful to God. Simply put, just grateful that he thinks we all can do and be where we are today. So I just want to praise God tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Temkavy.

Yes, thank you, Mayor. I have a couple things. I've been working with our assistant town manager, Matt Gold, for the last couple of years with a partnership on a paint recycling event over at the Douglas County High School. That goes on this Saturday from 10 to 2. It's free, so anybody who needs to recycle some paint, please come over. I think there's also one of the... Sports teams out there may be trying to fundraise a little bit for one of their teams. So please go over there and support them. Secondly, I want to talk about something good. I got to go to the Horizon of Hope event a couple weeks ago, which is an event kind of honoring all the people that helped open our new cancer center. So if some of you didn't know, we have a new cancer center here in town. Everybody up here on this council worked very hard to bring that to this town. We did a lot. We waived impact fees. We did a lot of things to help... have our own cancer center here in this town. And they had to still do $14 million worth of fundraising. And they did it. And so our cancer center is open. We got to hear from some of the people that are going to the cancer center and how wonderful it is to have something like that in the community today instead of having to drive to Lone Tree or Denver. So it's one of the really amazing things that this council has done And I really want to encourage everybody to go over there and take a look. And then, final thing, I also have an open house. It is on the 29th of this month, and it will be at Fire Station 155 from 4 to 6. Thanks, Mayor.

Absolutely. Next in the agenda, I have a proclamation, Dyslexia Awareness Month, Try for Dyslexia. I can barely pronounce that. October 1st, 2026. whereas dyslexia is a neurological difference that affects the development of accurate and fluid reading, spelling, and written language skills while bearing no relationship to a person's intelligence, creativity, or potential, and whereas children and adults with dyslexia can succeed when they receive early identification and evidence-based structure literacy instruction from appropriately trained professionals, and whereas Castle Rock is home to A Way With Words, a specialized academic language therapy center that provides dyslexia therapy for those both at local clinic and within area schools, offering a level of specialized access for communities across the country that do not have. And whereas the center reaches many Castle Rock area students and families, you have the need for qualified dyslexia therapists and practitioners continue to exceed the services currently available, whereas the inaugural drive for dyslexia golf tournament will be held on October 1st, 2026 at the Ridge. Castle Pines North will raise awareness and funding for Colorado-based training scholarships, whereas 100% of the tournament proceeds will remain in Colorado, helping build a sustainable network for qualified professionals. who will serve as students and families for years to come. Now, therefore, the Town Council of the Town of Castle Rock, Colorado hereby proclaims 2026 October as Dyslexia Awareness Month in Castle Rock and recognizes October 1st, 2026 as Drive for Dyslexia Day. The Town encourages residents, schools, businesses, and community organizations to learn about dyslexia, I recognize the strength and potential individuals with dyslexia and support in the efforts to expand its evidence-based intervention throughout the community and state. Pass approved and adopted the 15th of September, 2026 by Town of Castle Rock and the Town Council of Colorado. First and final reading. I think we do have somebody who wanted to speak on that tonight. Thank you. It's a silver button. And as he's walking up, my father had dyslexia as well. And it was really troubling for him. And he took classes up until he was really an elder adult. So thanks, you guys.

OK. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of Castle Rock Town Council. It's truly an honor for us to be here today. I think it's incredibly important that Castle Rock is recognizing dyslexia because this affects a significant number of people right here in our own community. If we use the commonly cited estimate, citing that roughly one in five people experience characteristics of dyslexia, here in Castle Rock we're talking about 16,000 people. And that number doesn't include parents, teachers, siblings, and families who walk alongside them. The numbers are significant, but there's a hopeful message. With the right structured literacy intervention, students with dyslexia can become successful readers. This is why the awareness and support matters. Support from the Town of Castle Rock and crewing programs like your community grant program helps strengthen the people and the organizations working directly with these members of our community. When we create awareness, provide the support, and connect with students with effective intervention, we can change outcomes. Thank you again to the town of Castle Rock for recognizing dyslexia and supporting the students and our family. And with that, I would like to turn it over to Angela, who can speak a little bit about what we're doing directly here.

Thank you, TJ. As he mentioned, with the right intervention, students with dyslexia can become successful readers. But access to the kind of specialized instruction depends on having highly trained educators. That is one of the reasons that the Alta Charitable Foundation created the drive for dyslexia. On October 1st, we will host the inaugural Drive for Dyslexia Golf Tournament here in Colorado, with proceeds supporting scholarships for specialized dyslexia training. By increasing the number of educators with this training, we increase the number of students and families who have access to effective instruction. We are deeply grateful to the town of Castle Rock for recognizing October 1st as Drive for Dyslexia Day and helping bring greater awareness to this important issue. Thank you.

Thank you, guys. Next, this time is reserved for members of the public to make a presentation to Council on items or issues that are not scheduled in the agenda. As a general practice, the Council will not discuss or debate these items. Nor will Council make any decisions on these items presented during this time. They may refer the items to staff for follow-up. Comments are limited to three minutes per speaker, time limited to 30 minutes total. Residents will be given priority in order they are signed up to address council followed by the non-residents in Castle Rock businesses and the non-residents and businesses outside the town of Castle Rock as time permits. Council is also accepting public comment submitted online at crgov.com backslash council comments by 1 p.m. today. Bless you. And be included in the public record. I do have a handful of people signed up to speak. And I'm going to read. There's several people who didn't put a number or are unscheduled. So Andre, I can't pronounce your last name. Are you unscheduled comment or are you scheduled? Unscheduled. Great.

Please do. You can sit down and just push the mic. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Pull the mic down.

First time. Long time listener. First time caller. Sorry. So good evening. MAYOR, MEMBERS OF COUNCIL, OUR FELLOW RESIDENTS. OUR FELLOW RESIDENTS. OUR FELLOW RESIDENTS. MY NAME IS ANDRE JYNIAK. MY NAME IS ANDRE JYNIAK. MY NAME IS ANDRE JYNIAK. I AM HERE TONIGHT TO SPEAK ON I AM HERE TONIGHT TO SPEAK ON I AM HERE TONIGHT TO SPEAK ON BEHALF OF COUNCILMAN MARK BEHALF OF COUNCILMAN MARK BEHALF OF COUNCILMAN MARK DAVIS. DAVIS. DAVIS. I AM A RESIDENT OF DISTRICT I AM A RESIDENT OF DISTRICT I AM A RESIDENT OF DISTRICT FOUR. FOUR. FOUR. I'M A VOTER. I'M A VOTER. I'M A VOTER. I'VE LIVED HERE FOR 20 YEARS. I'VE LIVED HERE FOR 20 YEARS. I am speaking to address the recent attacks on Mark's integrity and to express my unwavering confidence in the work that he is doing here and for this community and, of course, my district, our neighborhood. When I cast my vote for Mark Davis, I did not vote for a passive seat warmer. I voted for a man of conviction, a man that would stand up against the unchecked, rampant growth that threatens the character and heritage of our town. Mark campaigned on real reform, specifically reining in the high-density development and bringing accountability to unelected boards that have continually prioritized outside commercial interests over the families, like mine, who actually live here. Over the last few weeks, we have seen a coordinated campaign aimed at sidelining him through these political attacks, manufactured outrage, and weaponized recall effort. The people orchestrating this recall are not interested in the well-being of everyday citizens like myself and many of those in this room. They are protecting their own entrenched interests and trying to silence the one man on the council who refuses to bend a knee to the developer lobby. Not saying the rest of you do that, just making note of it. When a public servant pushes back against political pressure, the establishment calls it playing hardball. or fabricates corruption. What we see Mark doing as a voter, I see him standing up for me. I don't call it playing hardball. I know that he has my interests at heart. this politically motivated attack. I know that he is refusing to be bullied, and he stands up for us. And I would say that Mark Davis has also proven himself a man of upright character, focusing on serving us, our families, the neighborhoods, and the future of Castle Rock. He has taken the heat because he's actually doing the job we sent him here to do. CHALLENGING, HOLDING THE LINE, CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO, AND PUTTING RESIDENTS FIRST. I URGE THE COUNCIL TO REJECT THESE PARTISAN DISTRACTION TACTICS AND RESPECT THE WILL OF THE VOTERS WHO PUT HIM HERE.

THANK YOU, ANDREA. APPRECIATE IT. NEXT, I HAVE MIKE AND HEATHER EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL.

EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. EZELL. You then went on to reiterate at the September 19th, 2023 meeting that, quote, my lack of support for this is 100% about I don't feel like it's necessarily our job to promote a vote on a ballot. I believe that's something that needs to be reviewed by the voters without necessarily influence from council, end quote. Mayor Pro Tem Cavey, at the September 5th, 2023 meeting, you stated that you had a position on a similar resolution the previous year and that your position was unchanged. So I went back to the September 20th, 2022 council meeting to review your statement where you said, quote, I don't think it is within the council's purview to try and influence one way or the other which way Douglas County voters vote. That shouldn't be what we're doing, end quote. I'm calling you both out on your hypocrisy, for using your elected position to promote your own personal bigoted beliefs, and for breaking your own self-professed moral code to do so.

Thank you, Megan. Next, I have Randy Reed.

Is it on or not? There we go. Mayor, Council, thank you very much for this opportunity to address you tonight. This is an issue that I'm asking you to consider. This has been going on for about three years now. And what it is, it has to do with recreational amenity of the town of Cass Rock. The town of Cass Rock is a full-service, freestanding community. And in 1999, the town of Cass Rock created the Red Hawk Ridge Golf Course. Obviously it was for residents, a resident recreational facility. Of course we'd welcome non-residents. About three years ago, it was instituted, or excuse me, let me back up. At that time, the conception of the golf course was residents could have eight-day advance to get a tee time. Non-residents would have seven days. About three years ago, a policy was instituted that if you wanted to get a tee time prior to eight days in advance, but less than 30 days, you would pay an additional charge of $20. I think it was last year that charge was upped to $25. to do that for the it was non-refundable 25 charge to get one outside of above eight days and no longer than 30 days out this actually has become a very deterrent to the residents which is this golf course was created as a recreational amenity for the residents if you look at the percentage-wise of this a non-resident that increase of 25 only represents about a 30 increase for their green fee for a resident that represents a 40 increase not fair to the resident for a resident is the town what this recreational facility was created for i understand the golf course is an enterprise fund which means it's not a revenue generator for the town of castle rock So therefore, I say we need to take a good look at this. I understand the revenue helps the golf course be as wonderful a golf course as it is, a great amenity to this community, but it's become a deterrent to the residents. This policy has actually worked against the residents of the town of Castle Rock. I know you don't want to give up that revenue. I get that. But I think there needs to be an adjustment, and what I would propose to council, to direct Department of Parks and Rec, is that perhaps the residents should only pay an additional $10 fee to do that advanced tee time above eight days but less than 30 days, where the non-residents would pay $25. There needs to be some sort of... there because the residents of the town of Cass Rock are the ones that are going to be hurt. I played golf this morning with a guy and he told me, which happens with many residents in the town of Cass Rock, I'll finish up real quick, Jason, is that he got up at midnight to get a tee time eight days out in advance and the best time he could get was 1.20 in the afternoon.

Randy Reed, I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Next, we have Janet. Can't pronounce that last name either. Zoting? Zotaway. Thank you. Appreciate that. Thanks, Deets.

Hi, my name is Janet Zodaway, and I'm here on behalf of Mark Davis to support him. I'm in District 4. I'm a Colorado native. I've lived in Castle Rock for 26 years. We went around to promote his... and we think he's very upstanding and full of integrity and wants the very best for Castle Rock. One of the things he ran on was not to have so much high density and tall buildings in Castle Rock, which most residents, I think, prefer. I think what happened was a mistake. He was trying to appease maybe the developer. Maybe he didn't do it in the right way as a town council person because he doesn't have any leverage to do anything outside of the whole board. I think this mistake is being politically motivated to try to upseat him so they can replace him with people that are part of the downtown development board and the design board. And one of the candidates that's running for mayor, they are all kind of in cahoots with wanting to change what's happening in downtown Castle Rock. Mark stood his ground, and he's being persecuted for it, is what I see. So I just want to say that I think he's a great town council district member and want to see him stay.

Thank you, Janet. Evan Fraser.

All right, like I said, my name is Evan Frazier. I'm here to support Mark Davis. I'll be honest, I didn't find out about this until late last night, so I don't know if anything is written well as Andre has. But I think the thing that we're all hearing from everybody here is whether Mark made a mistake or not, We are all sick and tired of the development. We don't want to see this high density. It is ruining our city. And so I think that's what we put Mark in charge of and why we elected him, and that's why we want him to stay. And I think we're much better off having Mark here, and I'd rather see developers and people like Miles Davis leave and not come back.

Thank you. Thank you, Evan. I have no one else to speak on. I'll just go to public comments. Moving on to the town manager's report. David.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Just a few items to go over this evening. As we've been talking about, we've got open houses. There we go. Council Member Brooks is here on Thursday. If you haven't had a chance to get out at Lost Canyon Ranch, this is your opportunity to do so. It's going to be, I think, particularly spectacular here towards the end of the day. So I would very much encourage the community to come, and particularly those residents in District 5. Then you see the other open houses there as well. And we really appreciate the opportunity to hear from citizens. And I know that council members and Mayor Pro Tem do as well. And then September 30th, council, we've got the town employees years of service celebration. September 30th is a very important day in my life. It's the birthday of my first daughter. And the Corliss family says September 30th is the most beautiful day of the year. And it usually is. So it's going to be a great morning to celebrate with our employees the years of service celebration. Moving into October, State of the Town event. The entire community is invited to attend that. On October the 2nd, The fire department is hosting a values and vision celebration. Council, you are particularly invited to attend that as well. You all have been invited to the Wellspring event. The community and town council have been strong supporters of Wellspring, so we like to go and celebrate with them. And then we've also got here on October the 8th the open house that Castle Rock Water is hosting on their strategic resources master plan. It's a great opportunity for all of the community to come and learn about what we're doing for water now and what our plans are for in the future. We get a lot of questions. We get questions at open houses. More than happy to respond to them in whatever venue you want. Email, phone call, come to an open house. But here's an opportunity to also engage with Mark and his staff in regards to the water plan that we have. And then finally there you've got on your calendars where we're going to have an appreciation event for our boards and commissions there on October 29th. Just a few, I won't hit too many of these. We're kind of winding down the concert season there with another free concert here on the 17th of September. And that'll be right after the open house. And then we've got Oktoberfest, which I have learned doesn't always have to be in October. Apparently in Germany they start early, so we're starting early as well here this weekend. And I know that Kevin Tilson, the Downtown Merchants Association, they put this on. We obviously have some in-kind help, but Kevin and Cara and that whole group do a great job of putting that event on. We certainly encourage the community to attend. And then we've got a few other items as well. There on September the 26th, Parks is supporting an event out at Lost Canyon Ranch. I've signed up. We're going to start clipping some of the barbed wire that's been left over from some of the old ranching days to kind of make it feel a little bit like more open space. So it's going to be a neat event as well. And then moving into some neighborhood meetings, the town goes beyond what state law requires for development. We require a series of open meetings for proposed development. You see those set out there. These are hosted by the developer. We have town staff there. to answer any kind of general questions, but these are the opportunities for the applicant to interact with their neighbors and anybody else interested in regards to that project. The one there on September 30th, that is obviously the town-owned Cantrell School. Remember that it's zoned for multifamily. We talk about density. It could have been, if we didn't acquire it...

Thank you. Moved on to the acceptance of the agenda. There are no changes, additions, or releases to the agenda. A motion to accept the agenda as presented will be accepted. So moved.

Second.

First by Council Member Bracken, second by Mayor Pro Tem Kavey. Roll call vote, please.

Councilmember Hollingshead. Yes. Councilmember Bracken. Yes. Councilmember Davis. Yes. Councilmember Brooks. Aye. Councilmember Dietz. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Cavey. Yes. And Mayor Gray.

Aye.

Thank you. Motion passes.

Thank you. Moving on to consent calendar. These items are generally routine in nature and have been previously reviewed by town council and will be voted on in a single motion without discussion. Any member of town council may remove an item from the consent calendar. Number 6, Proclamation 2026-12, Proclamation Fire Prevention Week, October 4th through the 10th, 2026. Number 7, Minutes 2026-23, Minutes September 1st, 2026, Town Council Meeting. I will accept the motion. So moved.

Second.

First by Councilmember Bracken. Second by Mayor Pro Tem Cavey. Roll call vote, please.

Councilmember Hollingshead.

Yes.

Councilmember Bracken. Yes. Councilmember Davis.

Yes.

Councilmember Brooks. Aye. Councilmember Dietz.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Cavey. Yes. And Mayor Gray.

Yes.

Thank you. Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. Moving on to quasi-judicial hearings. The following items are due process hearings required under Colorado law. In order to afford all parties due process under law, town council members must be fair and impartial in deciding whether an application should be approved, approved with conditions, or denied. In making that determination, each council member must consider for the record, which includes planning commission recommendation, staff recommendation, applicant presentation, and public comment presented during the hearing, and other public comments offered before or during the hearing. Under law, Town Council must evaluate the proposal based solely on the record and criteria established under Municipal Code. which is highlighted in the staff report. It is important that each council member remain objective and capable of considering information offered into the record during the hearing. If any council member believes that he or she is incapable of evaluating and voting on an application consistent with those due process requirements, please describe the situation and recuse yourself from further participation. Does any council member have a conflict of interest that he or she would like to discuss prior to the proceeding? Madam Clerk, has this public hearing been properly noticed under applicable regulations for these type of land use hearings?

Yes, it has.

Thank you. The council will now hear from the applicant. Public and staff public comments will be taken and limited to four minutes per speaker. Number eight, Ordinance 2026-30, Ordinance Decidating 422 Front Street, also known as Maples, as local landmark amending sections 15.64.060 of the Casanova Municipal Code. Tara?

Good evening, Mayor and Town Council. As you mentioned, this is 422 Front Street, historically known as the Maples. This property is located in our Craig and Gould neighborhood, which is our first historical residential zone in town. It is just about 0.2 acres in size, and it's located south of Fifth Street, as you can see on that map. So a little history about this property. And as a part of the local landmark process, we hire a contractor to do what's called a cultural resource survey on the property that goes into the details of the historical nature of it. That is an attachment to the staff report. This property was, this home was originally constructed in 1901 and 1902 by George Stewart. It is a one and a half story classic cottage home. It was their, he had historical significance ties to the community in a lot of different ways, but one of which is he also owned the land around the rock. So I'll touch on that in a little bit. It has historically been a home. Front Street does allow businesses uses in the same area too. So just wanted to give a little touch on that. Here's what the home looks like as I was talking about it. Probably wanted to see a picture of it. So one and a half story classic cottage. You can see that it is clad in locally quarried rhyolite. Again, construction finished in 1902. Over time, most of the windows have been replaced, so these are not specifically historical windows. The roof is a hipped roof with overhanging eaves, and you can see it has a small dormer on the front. On the front porch here, it's about a half porch as the main entrance. The other image shows access off the rear side. This property is served by both Front Street and then the alley behind it, and it has a more modern handicap access to it now. So how does the local landmark process work? In our code, we lay out these two main areas to meet a local landmark criteria. The property must meet two of the criteria in the first significance column and one or more in the historic integrity column. The Cultural Resource Survey found that the property does meet four different ones under significance column. It was part of the early development of our Craig and Gold's addition to town. It's a very classic cottage architecture style. It is clad in the rhyolite. And the Stewart family has owned it for more than four decades. And they were prominent members of our community at the time. Under the historical integrity, they do meet all of those criteria. Staff reviewed it, took it to the Historic Preservation Board. The Cultural Resource Survey concluded that it does meet the criteria for local landmarking. The Historic Preservation Board voted 7 to 0 to recommend approval to you all this evening. The applicant, David Braun, I believe is in attendance tonight. And we're happy to answer any questions you may have. And here's a motion for your consideration.

Thank you, Tara. Any questions for Tara or staff? is there um was the applicant like to speak or he doesn't have to just if you want to okay there you go yes sir I have no one else. I have someone to speak. If someone wishes to speak, please approach the podium and speak in the microphone. State your name and whether you're a resident, non-resident, or business owner. You have four minutes to speak. Seeing none, we'll now close the public hearing and bring it back to counsel for further discussion and a motion.

Move to approve the ordinance as introduced by title. Second.

We have a first and a second, and Mark Davis needs to speak.

I need to recuse myself. I know the owner. Thank you.

Thank you, Mark. A first from Council Member Brooks, a second from Council Member Hollingshead. Any further discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Council Member Hollingshead. Yes. Council Member Bracken. Yes. Council Member Davis. Council Member Brooks. Aye. Council Member Dietz.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Cavey. Yes. Mayor Gray. Aye. Thank you. Motion passes 6-0.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we move on to Advertise Public Hearing and Discussion Action Items. Number 9, Direction Discussion 2026-22, Direction of Applications for the Third Quarter Council Community Grant Program and Three Eligible Applicants. Trish?

Thank you, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and Council. I am here this evening to present to you the third quarter applications for the grant program. On your screen, you'll see some changes in the requirements. These are the changes that council approved back in fourth quarter, I believe it was, of 25. I'm not going to go through all of those. I just want them up there so you can realize or so we can see what we are comparing the applications to for approval. Overview of our current budget. Council had approved a $20,000 budget for this program. And we allocate that $5,000 per quarter and five grants per quarter would equate to $1,000 per grant. First quarter and second quarter, Council provided three grants each of $1,000 each. So we have spent $6,000. This is a lot of math. So we spent $6,000. We have a remaining budget of $14,000 for the year. So we're looking at quarter three. We've received three applications that we believe are eligible for this grant program. One that we did receive, we forwarded over to the ART program because it was no longer eligible under the new requirements. First item that we have here is Clothes to Kids of Denver. They have received grants in the past. They are doing a promotion called Shoes for Every Shopper. So they provide clothing and shoes to families or students of low income or in crisis families. And they are trying to provide new shoes for about 153 students. So they're asking for $1,000 to help with that effort. The next item you see here is the Alta Charitable Foundation. And this is actually an organization out of Texas, but as you heard earlier this evening, there is a local focus here, and I believe they're called Away With Words. And they are asking for $1,000 to fund education, language training for therapy credentials. The last one we have is called the Aspen Effect. And the Aspen Effect is a healing ranch environment where families can pair with mentors, and they work with youth to prevent mental health crisis, harmful behaviors, and really it's the partnership between the mentors and the animals in that ranch setting. And they are asking for $1,000 as well, and that would be to support two Castle Rock families to participate in the program. So those are the three organizations that we are presenting for consideration this evening. Quickly, I'm just going to show you the eligibility process for each of these. Close to Kids of Denver, every item, they met the eligibility. I will say it is not locally based, but they do provide local benefit. That was something that council in the past has always wanted to know with that organization. Similar to the Alta Charitable Foundation, they are not Castle Rock based, but it is a local chapter of the Alta Foundation. And the Aspen effect qualified for each of the five attributes that we look for. That's all I have, Mayor, and I believe there are members of each organization in the audience should you have questions or if they would like to comment.

Thank you, Trish. Would any of these three organizations like to speak? You don't have to? Yes, sir.

Yeah, Mayor Gray and Councilman members, thank you for this opportunity. We served, I remember Councilman Dietz came down to tour the ranch maybe about seven years ago, and we were serving about 20 kids. Last year we served over 200 kids with 50 mentors. This year we'll serve over 300 kids, and we've started a parent support program. So I believe that we can add value, and I'm just grateful for the opportunity to be funded by the city.

Thank you very much. Any questions? Thank you. Okay. I have no one else on the speaker. If someone wishes to speak, please approach the podium and speak in a microphone. Please state your name and whether you're a resident, non-resident, or business owner. You have four minutes to speak. Seeing none, we'll bring it back to town council for a possible motion and discussion.

Mr. Mayor, I move to award funding to the following organizations close to Kids of Denver, Alta Charitable Foundation, and the Aspen Effect. Second.

I move to bring jobs and capital investment here to Castle Rock. Primary employers are very, very important to our community. They provide jobs for our community and allow us to allow our residents a high quality of life because they can work and live in the same community. And so that is what our organization strives to do. And just so everybody understands on primary employment, those are jobs that create something and export those 50% or more of those goods or services outside the community. And when those goods and services go outside the community and then come back, they pay Castle Rock residents. And that generates wealth in our community. And that is exactly what we want to do. And that is exactly the goals that council has given us for pursuing economic development activities. They are number one, they are drivers of the economy. Number two, they create jobs for Castle Rock residents. Three, they improve the quality of life, reduced commute time because it's in our community. It allows us to be that unique standalone community that we have strived to be. And it allows our community members and folks that are working there to be participants in their community. If they don't have to commute up and down the corridor, they can then be involved in after school programs of all sorts, sports, and getting engaged with our community in many different aspects. And so we think it is a great quality of life to have jobs here in Castle Rock. As you guys know, we're a younger community. Our office space is limited. And so while some of these stats are a little dated, the truth about the stats is not. And that is we produce a very high percentage of our workforce commutes to work. That has changed significantly with COVID. And so since then, we have been more of a remote work community. We also see a lower office per capita because we're a new community. We don't have as many office buildings as other places. In fact, one of the risks that we run in Castle Rock is that growing companies and growing job creators don't have room or anywhere to move within our community and have to leave our community to find the office space that they need. and then a low percentage of primary employment and that is really what we want everyone knows that we have the outlets we have the promenade and now we have uh costco and dawson trails coming online what we'd lack is the primary employment component and that is really a big driver for our economy and that is why this project checks a lot of the boxes that we're looking to hit and so It's with great pride that we talk about Allosaurus and a potential agreement with them. I want to talk a little bit about their project and their history. Their project is going to add about 25, they're going to take about 26,000 square feet here in Castle Rock. We think that, and they're going to sign a seven year lease as part of this agreement, so they won't be here, it's not an overnight kind of operation. They're in the health and life services, bio life sciences industry. Phase one is they're going to start by moving some employees here to Castle Rock, and then they will hire about 75% of their employees from the Castle Rock market. And so we think that is incredible. They're going to have to put about $5.5 million into the lab space that they are going to create here in Castle Rock. And there's a potential in the first phase for it to be about 300 jobs. And so we're really excited about that. That'll happen over the first probably three to five years. And then their second phase is saying that we can ramp up to about 300 jobs here in Castle Rock. So we're really, really excited about this opportunity. It makes use of a former lab space that we had there before, and so we're really excited that these jobs are coming to Castle Rock. The elements of the agreement are twofold. One is a 50% permit and fee component, and the second is a pay for performance, which is outlined in our economic development policies, which means they have to create the jobs first, before they get any type of payment from the town in assistance in helping build out their lab space. So these are the general tenants of the agreement. And we have the opportunity to secure this group. And as you guys know already, I've said this many times before, but primary employers are agnostic to location. They can be anywhere, but they are choosing to be here. And so we're really excited about this opportunity. and we hope you will support the resolution for the agreement with Allosaurus. We also have Allosaurus folks with us here tonight, Dean Elliott and Cole Lanson, if you have any questions for the applicant or for the company themselves, but we could not be more excited about presenting this opportunity for you guys. So with that, I can answer any questions that you might have. Any questions for Frank or for Allosaurus?

Yeah, Council Member Bracken.

Yeah, Frank, I know in the past you've showed the slide that the amount of revenue generated with lunches, dinners, living, walking around Castle Rock, do you still have that number? Do you have an updated number on what those full build-out 300 people might represent to be infused within the downtown and around town?

Yeah, so we don't have exact numbers on all of those, but what we do have is a multiplier. And so usually the multiplier for a life sciences company like this is probably two to three times their annual revenue. and so we know that each one of those jobs creates a need for a part a piece of a dentist a piece of a of the of the retail business a piece of and so each single one of those has an economic impact and the full economic impact we won't know until we know the number of jobs and what the salaries of each of those individuals are we can't plug those in beforehand but we know that with this multiplier that we have on these jobs, that it will be significant, and it'll be new revenue to Castle Rock.

So, yeah, so like I think what you've discussed in the past, $100,000 income is $20,000 to annual downtown area, for example. I'm just trying to look at it from the location and what folks' benefits can get to enjoy from it.

So the location where they are here in downtown, we would expect that they would have a significant impact on downtown, that they would be going to have lunch in downtown, that they would be drawing services to the building in downtown. So we think that that economic impact could be significant. We haven't drawn those all the way out to the nth degree yet, but we can happily do that for you guys.

Thank you. Councilmember Davis.

How many years do you think it'll take to get to full capacity of the 300?

So in their pro forma, they have the first phase one would be about five years. That would be to get to roughly about 300 employees. And then, oh sorry, to get to 100 employees. And then phase two would be to get to the 300. And that would be an additional five years after that, plus or minus. And the best part about the way we structure our incentives here in Castle Rock is that they don't get anything that they don't produce. So if they do not produce those jobs, if they don't make it, then we have a not to exceed amount of $300,000. So they will not exceed that amount no matter how well they do and how many jobs they create. But we also know that they won't get anything unless they produce those actual jobs.

Nice.

Thank you.

Thank you. Any further questions for Frank or Allisource? thank you frank i have no one's time to speak if someone wishes to speak please approach the podium state your name and whether a resident non-resident or business owner you'll have four minutes to speak so you know we're back to town council for a discussion or a possible motion i'll move to approve the resolution is introduced by title and just get into the motion i have a first from council member brooks a second from council member davis um And go ahead, Councilmember Brooks.

I'd like to express my support for the resolution and just overarching support of the efforts of the Castle Rock EDC. you know, really to have a healthy community. It's not just about having retail. It's not just about having great places to eat. It's not just about having Lost Canyon, you know, and awesome, you know, recreational spaces. Phillip S. Miller. There's a balance there. And what you're working to do here is to help create a balance where there are obviously, you know, we're heavily imbalanced already, but trying to just gain a little bit of a foothold for primary employment here in Castle Rock. That's something I feel is very vital to the town. I would like to applaud your efforts, and particularly with this project, I think it actually could bring some fantastic jobs here, and I'm very excited to see this kind of come to fruition.

thank you councilman i think it's the balance that allows us to attract employers like this that we have a balanced community like that and i did neglect to mention that they will also be seeking an incentive from the county as well so we are only one portion of the of the of the incentive great and for the comments roll call vote please

Council Member Hollingsham.

Yes.

Council Member Bracken. Yes. Council Member Davis.

Yes.

Council Member Brooks. Aye. Council Member Dietz.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Temkavy. Yes. Mayor Gray.

Aye.

Thank you. Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Moving on to number 11 on the agenda. Resolution 2026-102. Resolution approving the Fourth Amendment to the Service Plan for Villa Mesa Metropolitan District authorizing the execution of the First Amendment to the Intergovernmental Agreement by and between the Town of Cass Rock and the District. Mike Hyman.

Yes. Thank you, Mayor and members of council. This one is going to be a fairly simple amendment. We're dealing with the Bella Mesa Metropolitan District. The service plan has been amended three times previously. We're working on the fourth amendment here. But we're actually looking at a first amendment to the IJA to incorporate what the changes are going to make. Next page, Anna. If you take a look, this is the property that is highlighted, which is subject to the service plan. Really, it's that Bella Mason neighborhood between Founders Village and Castlewood Ranch. Oh, there we go, my clicker. Thank you very much. This is great. So if you'll notice, part of the district has been built out. I believe there are about approximately 190 single family homes down there at the bottom of the district, east and south of Mesa Middle School. OK, well, let's see. Here we go. Great. So the district itself is located in approximately 406 acres. Again, northeast of Michelson Boulevard, south of State Highway 86, west of Castlewood Canyon Road, and it's wholly within town boundaries. That's why we're here tonight acting on the proposed amendment. The approval process is governed by the Special District Control Act, Chapter 11.02 of the Castle Rock Municipal Code. A little bit of background. We're talking about a fairly old district, 22 years old. It was originally approved in 2004 under the name Vistas at Rock Canyon. In 2006, there was a non-material First Amendment regarding the issuance of general obligation bonds and the conditions under which those would issue. Fast forward 10 years, the name was changed by the Douglas County District Court to Bella Mesa Metropolitan District. And in 2018, this town council approved a second amendment to the plan to allow the district to process an exclusion of property from its boundaries. Finally, the plan was most recently amended in 2020. The third amendment updated the financial plan and allowed for the issuance of debt. Now, the modifications being proposed here are fairly simple and really operational in nature. They're really not financial in nature. Under recent amendments to the Special District Control Act, Metro Districts can now provide covenant enforcement and design review services within their boundaries. So that's really the power that the district is asking for. And the reason for that is while the original development has an HOA, The developments that are being proposed for the north and south ends of the site will not have HOAs, and so the district will perform the typical services that an HOA performs with regard to enforcing the covenants that apply to those properties. The next modification will clarify the ability of the districts to impose fees for providing operations and maintenance services. And then the last modification will clarify that the district will not be dissolved after the debt is paid off if it has an ongoing obligation to provide those types of services under the service plan and as authorized by the town. Now, I believe that there are representatives of the district here tonight. I see down in the corner, yes, Jennifer's here. Just in case there is a question regarding the proposal. But other than that, just some jurisdictional issues. We have jurisdiction over material and modifications of a service plan. That's what we're doing here tonight. The process is... substantially the same as provided for approval of the original plan, this public hearing. And basically, the plan meets the requirements and continues to meet the requirements that are set forth in the Special District Act and in our oversight code. We've reviewed that fourth amendment and to the service plan and the first amendment to the IGA. We have no objection to the modifications that the district has proposed. So without further ado, I'll move to the motion screen and ask if there are any questions that anybody has on council. And certainly our friend Jennifer Ivey is back. If you want to come forward in case the council has any questions, probably a good idea.

Mayor Potter, Tom Cavey.

Yeah, I have a question. Kind of sounds like the district is acting as an HOA.

In this regard, it is. And I think if you can explain the statutory requirements, I think this is something that the legislature has authorized districts to do.

Yeah, Jennifer Ivey with Ice Noggle Seaver Pogue, General Counsel to the District. Thank you for the question, Mayor Brokham. As Mr. Hyman said, this was added to the statute after this rather old district was formed. The statute does enable special districts, if they're listed in the covenants or via an agreement, to enforce the covenants instead of an HOA. This really only comes into play when the only Function of the HOA would be not providing services but just enforcing covenants. So we see more active HOAs where they actually own a clubhouse or improvements and those type of HOAs would still exist. This is really just limited to design review services and enforcement of covenants rather than taking on active HOA functions. The existing portion of the district has an HOA. This does not contemplate any changes to that, that HOA would stay in existence. This is really only for the new portion of the development so that if the developer decides that it would be more efficient instead of having two entities, an HOA and the district, that they could limit that just to the district.

So at some point they would charge some kind of fee or something to the homeowners?

Yeah, that's where the fee component comes in. Since this district has been formed for quite some time and has existing residents, we would obviously only want those people that are receiving those covenant enforcement services to pay for it, right? We wouldn't want to encumber the existing homeowners with that burden. So there would have to be a fee on just that portion of the district that was receiving those services.

OK, thank you.

Any further questions for Michael or? Thank you. I have no one to speak. If someone wishes to speak, please approach the podium and speak to the microphone. Please state your name and whether you are a resident, non-resident, or business owner. You will have four minutes to speak. Seeing none, we'll bring back to town council for further discussion and a possible motion.

I move to approve resolution number 2026, which one are we on, 102, as introduced by title.

Second. The first by Mayor Pro Tem Katie, second by Council Member Hollingshead. Any further discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Council Member Hollingshead.

Yes.

Council Member Bracken. Yes. Council Member Davis. Yes. Council Member Brooks.

Aye.

Council Member Dietz. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Cavey. Yes. Mayor Gray. Yes. Thank you. Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. Thank you. The following three items will be introduced together but voted on separately. Number 12, Ordinance 2026-31, Ordinance authorizing the repeal and reenactment of Title IX of the Castle Rock Municipal Code and amendment on other related sections. Number 13, Ordinance 2026-32, Ordinance amending Section 9.22.1010 of the Castle Rock Municipal Code prohibiting retail sale of Kratom products for human consumption. Number 14, Ordinance 2026-33, Ordinance amending Title IX, Castle Rock Municipal Code by addition of new Section 9.09.050 requiring corporate entities to report theft. My comment?

Thank you, Mayor and members of council. We've had this presentation last week when we discussed this item. Essentially a similar presentation tonight that I'll go through for the benefit of the public. Really what we're looking at here in the primary ordinance that we're considering tonight is a wholesale amendment to our Title IX of the Castle Rock Municipal Code. That Title IX is named Public Peace, Morals, and Welfare. It's really our criminal code. It's the ordinances that we prosecute in our municipal court. Just generally, Town Council has this power to adopt ordinances that are necessary to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the community. And you can date back to 1968 when we first adopted Title IX to provide a comprehensive set of criminal laws. Now, if you take a look today, many of those provisions are either obsolete or will require substantial revisions to meet current federal and state constitutional standards. That's why we're doing a general repeal and reenact. So while some of the more modern provisions, like you'll find in Chapter 9.06, really aren't changing because we just adopted them a couple of years ago, Some of the other ones that date back to the 60s and 70s are undergoing some substantial revision. Basically, this is a cooperative effort. We have a group of volunteers from our Castle Rock Police Department. They work closely with the attorneys in our office on this update. We brought in our Chief Prosecutor, Chris Diasmus, as well as the law firm of Hoffman Parker Wilson Carberry to also help assist in the preparation of this ordinance. And so once again, thanks to everybody who participated. And Chief Colley, your team was absolutely wonderful and instrumental in getting this done. Much appreciated. So, just some of the highlights. We're adding a new chapter 9.01. This will make it easier. It's a definitions section. We're taking out definitions that may have appeared internally in some of these code sections, trying to make the code a little easier to use for our officers. We're also defining culpable mental states, something that our officers particularly requested. They're clearly defined now, whether a criminal violation was done intentionally, whether it was done knowingly, whether it was done with extreme recklessness and indifference. we're also adding a Chapter 9.02. This is kind of clarifying your intent in adopting this code and authorizing your police department to enforce this Title IX in the municipal court. Chapter 9.04 was originally entitled Offenses Against Public Peace. We're really diving into that section and adopting some constitutionally enforceable language for some of our more basic offenses, and this includes trespass, assault and battery, disorderly conduct, and theft. We're also taking some action here to protect our law enforcement officers as well as our citizens from persons who fail to obey a lawful order of a peace officer and instead seek to disrupt the public peace. And then at the request of our school resource officers, we're adding a new offense, and that's unlawful interference with the educational institution. This is really designed to protect our students and teachers in their classrooms. Then we head to Chapter 9.08, Offenses Against Property. We're expanding the crime of damage to public property to also address private property. That's a notable omission. I don't know why it was out of there, but it is in there now. We're adding a specific offense prohibiting unauthorized connections to the property of a utility provider, and I'm sure Mr. Marlowe is happy about that. being our utility provider. And then we're creating a new chapter 9.09, that's Offenses Against the Administration of Government. This is generally to try to clarify our existing laws that prohibit false reports of crimes and emergencies, interference with our public safety personnel. Then we're going to Chapter 9.10. This is some of the more esoteric offenses, complicity, attempt, and accessory offenses, some of the things that you can charge to people who assist in perpetrating crimes. So we are going to add a specific offense to impose responsibility on parents and guardians for the criminal acts of their minor children. And we're also going to require that those parents and guardians accompany their minor children if they are charged in our municipal court. And then 9.16, noise control. We've had a fairly recent case in the Supreme Court, Hobbs v. City of Salida. We want to make sure that our ordinance now complies with that case, unless and until, of course, the legislature changes the results of that case. So we may not permit any for-profit or commercial entity now to exceed maximum noise levels that are set by state statute. Then, a couple of other highlights. We're going into some other sections of the code. In particular, a general penalty section in Chapter 1.08. What we're doing is codifying the decision of the Colorado Supreme Court in the case of In Re People v. Camp. So any penalties that are imposed by the municipal court cannot exceed the maximum penalties imposed by state law where the municipal ordinance, and this is very important, where the municipal ordinance and state statute prohibit the same conduct. All bets are off if they do not prohibit the same conduct. So we are going to make sure we take our maximum penalty that we can do under state law for offenses that are charged in the municipal court and impose a maximum jail time of up to 364 days. a fine up to $2,650, or both such fine and imprisonment, as we are allowed to do under the municipal court statute. Another thing, we're fixing an omission that we had in the code. This was done at the request of our chief prosecutor. we are going to add a new section regarding restitution and public service so that our municipal court has clear authority, when appropriate, to award restitution to crime victims and to public safety agencies. And then also order a person who is convicted of the crime, if it is appropriate punishment, to perform public service. So that pretty much takes care of Ordinance 2026-031, our general Title IX rewrite. Here are the other two ordinances that we're going to look at tonight. The first one, O32, imposes a duty of a corporate entity to report retail theft. It's for those large corporate retailers. really to give them the impetus to report the theft of property to our law enforcement agencies within 96 hours of becoming aware of that theft. So it also will make it unlawful for that corporate retailer to retaliate against its employees for complying with this duty. It's really similar in scope to the ordinance that was considered by our Douglas County Board of Commissioners earlier this year. Then, O-33 is a prohibition against the distribution of Kratom products. So this will impose a blanket prohibition upon all retail sales of Kratom within the town. It does expand the action taken by the 2019 Town Council to prohibit sales of kratom to minors. It will prohibit all kratom sales for human consumption. So what this really is is acknowledging some more recent information that has been developed by medical authorities and federal agencies that indicate kratom carries significant health and safety risks. I wanted to go ahead to this slide, to the Chief of Police. I'm speaking for our friend Chief Colley here. And our office recommend that Town Council move forward with the adoption of the comprehensive update to Title IX. That's 031. And pursuant to your direction at the last council meeting, and I think Mr. Corliss can speak to this, town staff has conducted outreach to businesses that would be impacted by the other two ordinances, whether it's the corporate reporting of retail theft, or the ordinance banning retail sales of Kratom. And I believe we've had comments that have been submitted to council along those lines. Anything you wish to add to that, Mr. Corliss?

No, I just want to point out, Mike, the way that we published the agenda, the theft ordinance is number 33 and the Kratom ban is 32.

Well, my apologies. I think I saw an earlier copy. So that's what that is. So we're going to reverse them. So when you look at this, my apologies. 32 and 33 are reversed. Anyway, we're here now to the proposed motions. Happy to answer any questions you might have. And certainly, I think Mr. Corliss and Chief Golley are available as well.

David? So at council's request, worked with our business license division, and we did send out a communication to what we knew were the retailers that sold Kratom in the community. I'm not... Pledging that we got everybody, but we tried to send an email out to the email that we knew in regards to that. And then I sent a communication to the Chamber of Commerce, the EDC, the outlets, and to the Downtown Merchants Association about the proposed ordinance on retail theft. So that was the level of outreach that we did on those two ordinances. Thank you. Any questions?

Council Member Brooks. Mr. Mayor, thank you. Regarding 33, the retail theft, is there any specification about it? I know that it reads as large retailer, but is there any way of kind of describing what that is? Is it by number of employees? Is it by gross annual sales? Council, I'm sure we all saw it, received an email from somebody in the business community earlier saying, That is clearly not part of this, but yet I still think that it raises an overall concern from the business community, and justifiably so, that unless perhaps we have those guardrails in there about who really qualifies what is a large retailer, I don't know if that's something we can put in there or if it's something that's in there that I just missed.

Right now, there really isn't anything in there, Councilmember Brooks. It just really talks about a corporate entity. So if you feel that is something that we would want to consider, we can certainly take a look at this and bring this back for consideration at a later date. We're happy to take a look at whatever direction you wish to give us in that regard.

For me personally, I think that would give me some level of comfort. I think it perhaps might give our business community some level of comfort to know who's excluded specifically from that so we can say exactly who is included in what we're going after. It is truly the large retailers, but I think a definition of that is probably helpful. I don't know if anybody else wants to weigh in on that or not.

I would agree with that.

Council Member Bracken.

Yeah, so I spoke with a few officers and the police chief. And I think on this issue, they're not really asking for action from council to make this change for the reporting. So I'm not sure it's really necessary that we We adopt this. You know, if we're doing things that the department's not asking for. Questions. What's that? We're on questions. In form of a question, why would you propose this if they're not supportive of the action? That's my question.

Council Member Brooks.

I think there's a little bit of a distinction that is probably important to draw there. The difference between not being supportive or not particularly asking for something i think there's a vast difference between that so i don't think that it's fair to classify that they didn't come to us asking for this means that they're not supportive of it and at the same time you know like anything with police or fire generally you know we we set the rules government town government will set the rules and they execute according to that so i think that they're very comfortable otherwise i don't think that the chief of police would have given staff the thumbs up that they're fine with moving forward with it. Now as far as how that's enacted and how that's pursued, I think some of that, to be perfectly honest with you, might be somewhat ceremonial. I think that what it helps to do is not necessarily, we're not necessarily, in my mind, putting a thumb on the police force saying we need to do this, except that we're just sending a message to large retailers that if somebody's going to walk out with a couple of grand worth of goods and services, that the option is not to wave and say, have a nice day. That there is a duty to report. I understand that there is a duty to protect their employees. But if they're stealing from a large retailer, sometimes in the thousands of dollars, they are stealing from the town of Castle Rock. Retail tax is the very lifeblood of this town. I think that having that duty to report in there comes down more on the very large retailers, not so much a, you know, being something that is a difficulty for our police officers. It's really more on the retailers than it is CRPD, in my mind. Sorry to derail. That's okay.

Thanks for the clarification. I would respectfully ask Chief Collard to weigh in on this.

Good evening, Mayor and members of council. I'm here to answer any questions you may have.

I guess my question is, how do you and how does the department feel about this motion for the number 14, and that would be for the pre-chill theft?

And so we gave this a lot of thought, myself and command staff. A little history maybe, because I don't know if the full council dates back as far as our discussions have been when it comes to retail theft and organized retail crime. But... I was sworn in as a police chief on January 3, 2012. On January 4, 2012, I held a department-wide meeting to discuss our initiatives and what we needed to do to move forward. One of the items I discussed was organized retail crime and the importance of us taking a strong stance against retail theft. I fully support the intent of the ordinance. We definitely want the retailers to report thefts to the police department, fully support it. We are in a very unique position, as opposed to some other law enforcement agencies, in that we've been working organized retail crime and retail theft for more than 14 years. We have wonderful partnerships with our retailers, collaboration. We just held our second retail summit, co-hosted by Castle Rock Police and the 23rd District Attorney's Office. George Brockler was there, where we talked with the retailers, again, about what are their barriers to reporting and how can we help. And we learned a lot. We surveyed them. One of the things that we learned is that this particular issue across the country, because this isn't anything that's specific to Castle Rock or really the state of Colorado. It is a problem across the country. And you're right. There is a problem with some retailers not reporting retail theft. But there's barriers that we learned of why that occurs. One of them is the fact that when many of these retailers are reporting these thefts to their local police departments, the local police departments don't respond. or they respond two days later, or when they do respond, they don't take action. And the retailers that are meeting in our collaboration with them and engagement with them, they made it clear, this isn't happening in Castle Rock. They call us, we respond, we are very fortunate because of the resources that TOWN COUNCIL HAS GIVEN US AS FAR AS OUR ALLOTMENT OF OFFICERS, OUR TECHNOLOGY AND OUR TRAINING, WE'RE ABLE TO BE VERY EFFECTIVE AND WE'RE ABLE TO RESPOND QUICKLY AND TAKE ACTION AND ARREST THE PERPETRATORS AND WE TAKE THEM TO JAIL. THAT'S SOMETHING THAT WE WORKED WITH THE DA'S OFFICE ON THAT. WE TAKE THIS VERY SERIOUSLY. It's something, again, that we've been working on for 14 years. And we've seen great success from it. Trust is a big piece of this. The retailers trust us. They trust the town. They trust the police department that when they call us, we're going to respond and take the appropriate action. One of the other criticisms and barriers to the retailers not calling their local police departments is because when the police do respond, when they do, they're not professional at times, and they just don't know how they're going to react. And they don't want to put their employees at risk or their customers or the community. OUR RETAILERS KNOW HOW WE RESPOND. WE WORK WITH THEM CLOSELY. WE HAVE BUILT TRUST WITH THEM. WE DO HAVE A GREAT DEAL OF ENGAGEMENT AND COLLABORATION. SO WE FEEL THAT WE'RE ON THE RIGHT TRACK. WE, AGAIN, FULLY SUPPORT THE INTENT, BUT WE BELIEVE THAT WHAT WE HAVE IN PLACE AND WHAT WE'VE BUILT OVER THE LAST 14 YEARS IS WORKING. AND WE WERE JUST CONCERNED OF PERHAPS PUTTING AT RISK the trust that we've built with the retailers. We don't want to erode that because that's key to any police department, and certainly ours. It's critical for us, not just with the retailers, but with the community at large. So again... Retail theft is a concern of ours. It places the retailers at risk from a public safety perspective. It places their employees at risk and the community at large at risk. That's why it's very much a priority of ours. We have... As you know, stood up our strategic resource center, which is basically a real-time crime center. And we have officers in the field that are specifically trained to respond to and to take action on organized retail crime and retail theft, whether it's a big box store at the outlets or wherever. And we do that on a regular basis. And I'm proud to say that our officers are very, very good at it. They know what they're looking for and they have been very effective. So obviously we will take any direction that the town council gives us. At this time we just feel that the ordinance would be superfluous to what we have accomplished with our retailers to date.

Council Member Bracken. So I think, so is the fine by kind of like attacking them, is that your perspective that can break the relationship? Or is it the intent of it? What's the, I mean, I guess where's the breakdown so maybe we can address it in the ordinance in particular?

Well, I think that if we are building a relationship with the retailers and we're telling them, if you don't do X, Y, and Z, then you could be at risk of us. charging you with a crime, that doesn't necessarily play well with the trust relationship we're built. Because we've addressed it with them already. And they feel like our cooperation is working and we're addressing the crime as it's occurring. If they feel like if we report it and if it's over 96 hours and perhaps we're going to get charged They may not report it. And so we have success so far with them. We would like to continue down the road that we've been going.

Thank you. Any more questions for Jack or anybody else? I do have several people signed up to speak on item number 13, and I'll move to that. Thank you, Jack.

Okay. Thank you.

Number 13, I have... I have several people start to speak. Susan McAfee. They're all separate.

We're voting on them all separate.

Good evening, Mayor Gray, Mayor Potemkavy, council members, staff, and residents. My name is Susan McAfee. I'm a resident of Castle Rock and a toxicologist and pharmacologist. I am speaking to you tonight on kratom. In toxicology, the poison is in the dose. What affects one person adversely may not affect another person the same way, depending on the dose and the person's metabolism. Natural kratom comes from the Mitragyna speciosa, a tropical evergreen tree in the coffee family native to Southeast Asia, whose leaves have been used for centuries as an herbal supplement in traditional medicines. Kratom is not a drug. Kratom is not an opiate. Kratom is not a synthetic substance. Naturally occurring kratom is a safe herbal supplement that behaves as a partial new opioid receptor agonist and is used for pain management, energy, even depression and anxiety. Kratom contains no opiates, but it does bind to the same receptor sites in the brain. Chocolate and coffee affect the same receptors in the brain. Like chocolate or coffee, kratom can become addictive and in large doses can cause serious side effects. I have seen people hospitalized for drinking too much coffee. However, the issue here is that there are manufacturers in this country who are making kratom into a synthetic drug, hydroxymitagynine 7-0H. These drugs contain high levels of synthetic kratom as well as other toxic ingredients that can lead to respiratory depression, physical dependence, and withdrawal symptoms characteristic of classical opioids we are familiar with, such as morphine, fentanyl, oxycodone, and hydrocodone. There has been a concerning proliferation of concentrated 7-OH products that are sold over the counter and online. The enhanced amount of 7-OH in these products is synthetically derived through oxidate chemical conversion of mitragynine isolates or kratom extracts. Given the trace amounts of 7-OH that are nationally present in kratom extracts, Direct extraction of 7-OH from plant material was simply unfeasible economically, hence the reason for companies to manufacture synthetic 7-OH to increase the levels and to cause addiction. On July 1, 2026, the DEA announced the start of the temporary scheduling process under the Controlled Substances Act and through a notice of intent for 7-OH above a proposed specified threshold, as well as three synthetic 7-OH derivatives, mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15, and MGM-16, which do not naturally occur in the Kratom plant. Even the American Kratom Association, which supports the use of natural kratom, believes that kratom should be regulated and controlled to eliminate the use of synthetics and to make it only available to adults under the supervision of their doctors. Under the current lack of standardization and regulation, foods such as gummies and other types of readily available foods that appeal to children make kratom-like substances easily obtainable by children. there is no oversight on the amount of synthetic kratom in these substances nor oversight on the side effects of the additional synthetic compounds in these manufactured substances in effect it's like making fentanyl laced with other compounds legal as we have seen with the great cbd experiment here in colorado unregulated use of drugs can have serious consequences Products with unknown quantities of kratom or synthetic kratom should not be readily available to children and certainly not in a form that makes them attractive to children such as gummies. Thank you.

Thank you, Susan. Next I have Karen Ann Harlos.

Hello and thank you. I was here on this exact same topic back when, was it 2018, 2019? I'm going to say a lot of the same things. No one ever expects the Castle Rock Mullahs. We do not need the morality police to protect us from ourselves. Again, I was speaking on the same issue, on the same thing about five years ago. Can I ask you where on the Dahl the Kratom hurt you? In reading the alleged justification for this ban, I heard that it can have similar effects to prescription opioids. The last speaker, I think, dealt with that well. But for some, that's a feature, not a bug. This is used to get people off of actual addictions. This is an attack upon natural remedies. If you want to look at a pain patient or someone who suffers with depression who uses these types of things, you are looking at that person. Or do you actually presume that it should require your approval? I need your approval. You must be able to be fortunate not to understand the sufferers of chronic pain that is not adequately dealt with in the traditional system. Oh, but it could be addictive. Yes, so? That is your business over our bodies? Exactly how do these turn into marauding kratom infested hordes that are going to be storming downtown Castle Rock? I don't think banning is the answer, but it's even more ridiculous considering what a private sin this is. And if you are so concerned about the public morals, when am I going to see your proposals to make Castle Rock a dry city coming? Alcohol by far is an alleged moral hazard, but that would be an unpopular decision. It is easy to pick on a niche, invisible product. You say health and safety, but isn't that redundant? Don't you just mean you're concerned about health? Where's the safety? Unless you're thinking safety and health. I think that's just a fancy way to get control. But I'm going to ask you, what about sugar? What about caffeine? What about McDonald's? More people die from being fat. And that's just an absolute fact. But I don't see you guys wanting to ban those, but maybe I shouldn't give you any ideas, right? When, you know, I always understood, and I used to be the national secretary of the Libertarian Party, so I'm not politically naive. I heard that Castle Rock was supposed to be conservative, though now conservatism seems to encompass foreign regime change wars and show me your papers, troops murdering citizens in the street. But Hopefully we're better than that here. But I have to ask, is this the proper role of limited government? Sitting behind a dais does not give you special rights to ban the peaceful choices of peaceful people, even if you don't like them. As I always end these talks, government is force. Be cautious how you wield it.

Thank you, Carrie Ann. Wayne Harlows?

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Town Council. I have a story for you. I'll try to keep it as brief as I can. My son-in-law was involved in a dirt bike accident about 10 years ago, maybe 12. He broke his foot off. He had 28 surgeries to repair it. He was prescribed opioids to keep the pain managed so that he could function. He became addicted to each and every variety. And finally, the doctor said, you can't have any more opioids. He could not function. He couldn't stand up. He couldn't function at all. A friend of his turned him on to Kratom. That solved his problem. He did not get addicted to it, but it kept the pain manageable forever. Since then, he turned Karen, my wife, and me on to Kratom. I have four ruptured discs, two in my neck and two in my back. There was stenosis between the two in my back. I can't function on oxycodone. And besides that, I can't get more than four at a time from my doctor. So it doesn't work. Kratom provides me with the mechanism to keep the pain manageable so I can function in daily life. I find it reprehensible that any city or town would try to control a person's private opportunity to make their own choices how they manage their pain. My doctor's a big fan of Kratom. Big fan. she's been an advocate of our use of it since we started i hope that the town council reconsiders supporting a ban on kratom because it gives a lot of people the opportunity to manage their pain some of the kratom strains help people sleep or would you rather have people on ambien which is much more expensive. By the way, a lot of the studies that have been referred here came from the pharmaceutical industry because they don't want any competition. And they use, as our previous speaker said, a lot of the studies have been done with synthetic, quote-unquote, chemicals. equivalents. They're not. So the problems that have been found with Kratom have been the synthetic equivalents, not the natural product. I hope you reconsider this very strongly. And frankly, if any of you have been a pain patient and the only option you had was opioids that you were addicted to, what would your plan B be? You don't have one. Get sloshed on scotch? Well, that's legal. That's fine. What's better? I think people should have the personal opportunity to make their own choices. And right now, if you consider this motion, you're going to take those choices away from the people of Castle Rock. Thank you.

Thank you, Wayne. Next, I have Jacob Ringstand.

Thank you for your time, Mayor and Council. Hello, my name is Jacob Ringstedt. I'm a recovered opiate addict. I'm also a full-time single dad, and I've lived in Castle Rock since 1996. I went to Douglas County High School, and I have seen addiction issues take many of my friends here in Castle Rock from drug and alcohol abuse. I'm here to ask the Council to reconsider reconsider prohibiting the sale of plain leaves of kratom. September 11th, nine years ago, I made the best decision of my life and quit opiates after my best friend died of an accidental fentanyl overdose. After two weeks of not being able to sleep and being absolutely miserable, I found kratom by walking into a kratom shop and was able to stay clean with zero relapses because Kratom gave me the time I needed to work on myself and the issues I had to heal from. I no longer use Kratom very often, but I still use it as a tool when I injured myself working out. I think it would be a grave mistake to take away the possibility of someone like me trying to find an alternative treatment for opioid dependence and chronic pain management. Plainleaf Kratom isn't the problem, 7-H-O is.

Thank you, Jacob. Next, I have Joseph Dale Franciscan.

Thank you for having me today, Mayor. I've never done this before, so excuse my inexperience. I've been a resident of Castle Rock, Colorado for eight years, around eight years, and I have been an occasional Kratom user for about three of those years. Kratom is a wonderful thing and a wonderful helper of people who have pain and people that deal with constant anxiety and stress. I don't think it would be a thought-through idea to make this ban, especially when pharmaceuticals have been known to be way more synthetic than something that naturally comes from the ground. I encourage you to think about the businesses in Castle Rock that I've grown accustomed to. They give me wonderful customer service and great respect because this would also hurt those businesses. Thank you for giving me your time and that is all I have. Thank you. Thank you, Joseph.

Next I have Travis Turner.

Good evening, council members. My name is Travis Turner, and I'm here on behalf of the American Kratom Association. Silver button, please. Was it on?

Okay. Go ahead.

It was on? It was, yeah. Sorry. A consumer advocacy organization that works to protect access to safe, natural kratom leaf products and to advance science-based consumer protection standards. The AKA supports and actively works to pass appropriate kratom consumer protection regulation at the state, federal, and local levels. We appreciate how difficult it is for a city to enforce complex product regulations with limited resources. We also thank the council for one notable part of this ordinance. It does not direct penalties at consumers. Criminalizing the very people an ordinance is meant to protect would be wrong, and we thank you for that. Our concern is that it does not clearly distinguish between two different products, traditional kratom products and the synthetics that are often incorrectly classified as kratom, such as concentrated 7-hydroxymetragydine, also known as 7-OH. AKA agrees that the synthetics should be taken off the shelves. The FDA and DEA now draw that line clearly. I recommend this council look at the FDA's webpage hiding in plain sight regarding the 7-OH. The federal government has begun the scheduling process for 7-OH. The DEA and FDA have been clear. These actions target chemically concentrated versions of the compound, not the natural leaf. The traditional leaf, excuse me, not the traditional leaf products. Again, the AKA's mission is to protect consumers. Millions of Americans safely use traditional Kratom products without issue, often to help with chronic pain conditions. We believe it is imperative that Castle Rock make that same distinction. Address the dangerous soon to be scheduled 7-OH products directly. Please do not let the traditional kratom leaf get swept up in this ban. The federal government has said natural kratom leaf should not be scheduled or banned. We welcome the opportunity to meet with each council member to provide the council with the latest scientific studies and discuss support for statewide consumer legislations. Thank you. Thank you, Travis.

Next I have Misty Brown.

If it doesn't look like this and it comes with a blister pack, it's not great. Okay.

Sorry, I got to take my glasses off.

My name is Misty Brown from Gordon.

I did travel all the way down here from Gordon today. I am not paid to be here. I'm a passionate advocate. I'm a 47-year-old mother of three and grandmother to one. My daughters are 27 and 25. My son is 21, and my grandbaby is almost two. My daughters are actually watching this livestream as well as my social media followers right now. My son is in trade school, so he has class tonight. He'll watch the replay later. I'm here tonight speaking on behalf of Castle Rock residents who have no idea this hearing is even happening about the proposed ban on the retail sale of kratom. It's deeply personal to me. For 11 years, from 2008 to 2019, I was prescribed pain medication, benzodiazepines, and muscle relaxers through chronic pain management. What began as a dependence eventually became an addiction. I was physically present for my children, but mentally and emotionally, I was disappearing. In April of 2019, my prescriptions were abruptly ended, and my life spiraled even further. Then in June of 2019, I found Holy Craton. I walked into a smoke shop in Commerce City and purchased natural Craton powder. It was behind the counter, locked up in a glass case, and I was carded. Kratom helped quiet the constant cravings for one more pill, one more escape. It gave me an opportunity to rebuild my life. I have now been free from pain management and the cycle of prescription drug addiction for more than seven years. I'm a productive member of society. I'm a mother. I'm a grandmother. I pay taxes. I show up for my family. I'm no longer a burden to the state of Colorado. I'm no longer on Medicaid, Section 8, or food stamps. I'm no longer committing crimes to be my victims either. I'm here today because I believe my entire heart that Kratom helped save my life and helped save my children's lives by giving them their mother.

That was going to make me tear up.

I put them through a lot. Castle Rock should not take that option away from responsible adults. If there are concerns about dangerous, highly concentrated products like Synthetic 708, then ban those products appropriately. But please do not confuse them with traditional whole-leaf kratom and use them as a reason to ban the plant itself. I know what addiction looks like. I survived it. I know what recovery looks like. I'm living it. For me, Holy Grail was part of that recovery. A ban may look like a simple ordinance on a piece of paper, but for people like me, it can mean taking away something that helped us escape a cycle of addiction and rebuttal life. In 2025, Colorado passed the Daniel Breger Act, specifically creating stronger protections and regulations surrounding trading products. The law addresses exactly the kinds of concerns communities should have about consumer safety. It prohibits the sale of kratom to anyone under 21. It prohibits adulterated products. It requires proper labeling. It restricts products that appeal to children and requires retailers to keep kratom inaccessible to underage individuals. It also specifically addresses synthesized and semi-synthesized kratom alkaloids and limits certain high levels of 7-hydroxymetragynine. That is what responsible public policy looks like. The DEA has already scheduled the synthetic products such as metragynine pseudonoxyl, MGM-15 and 16. They will be scheduling 708 any day now. They've done the heavy lifting for you. Please don't punish responsible adults and please don't take away a plant.

Thank you, Misty. Thank you.

Oh, was I not talking in the microphone?

No, you're fine.

Oh, man.

Next, I have Margie Munez.

Good evening, Mayor Gray and Town Council. I'm not here speaking for Kratom. I'm here regarding the retail theft ordinance. I just wanted to say that I agree with Chief Cauley in his remarks, so I won't repeat what he said because I thought he spoke very clearly. So our stores, my concern is that there's no minimum amount set forth in this ordinance for reporting theft. And there's, you know, in addition to what Councilman Brooks said, so... So I guess I'm saying not in favor of it. The other consideration here is that we don't want to deter retailers from coming to do business in Castle Rock. And with something like this on the books, that might happen. They might look at that and say, I don't want to be accused of a crime if I don't report something that might be a $5 theft. So those are my comments. Thank you for hearing me out.

Thank you, Margie. I have no one else time to speak. If there's anyone who wants to speak, please post a podium, speak in the microphone. State your name, whether you're a resident, non-resident, or business owner. You have four minutes to speak. Seeing none, now we'll bring it back to town council. I have a question first.

Yes. Before we motion, I mean, it's procedural, so I guess it doesn't matter, but... Mr. Hyman, tell me what's easier really from staff's perspective. If we were to be in agreement to pass the retail theft ordinance, is it easier to pass it now, revise it later, or would you rather pull it out to be able to address maybe minimums that have been mentioned, which I think are very fair, and then also with some of the comments I had with specifying exactly what a large retailer is?

I would suggest, Councilmember Brooks, that you just move to continue the ordinance to the next meeting. That way, that'll give us a chance to take a look and see what might be appropriate along those lines.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yes, please. I can make a motion. Yes. Okay. Yeah, please. Well, comments or questions? Because we haven't made a motion yet, so...

We'll do comments after the motion.

OK. I had seen some nodding heads to this earlier. And if not, I suppose I'll get some no votes. But I would then move to continue the retail theft piece of this to a future meeting. And then we can vote on the other pieces.

Thank you. I have a first by Councilmember Brooks, a second by Councilmember Davis. Further discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Council Member Hollingshead. Yes. Council Member Bracken. Yes. Council Member Davis. Yes. Council Member Brooks. Aye. Council Member Dietz. Yes. Council, or excuse me, Mayor Pro Tem Cady. Yes. And Mayor Gray. Aye. Thank you. Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

I can take a stab at this. That I then move to approve ordinance 20-26-031 and 20-26-032 as entered as my title. Sir. Oh, we're doing them separate. Separately. So let's just start with 31. I move to approve ordinance 20-26-031 as entered as my title.

Second.

I have a first from Council Member Brooks, a second from Council Member Hollingshead. David.

Let me clear. 20-26-31 is the comprehensive update of Title IX.

Wait a second. Any discussion on that? Roll call vote, please.

Council Member Hollingsham.

Yes.

Council Member Bracken. Yes. Council Member Davis. Yes. Council Member Brooks. Aye. Council Member Dietz. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Cavey. Yes. And Mayor Gray.

Yes.

Thank you. Motion passes unanimously.

I move to approve Ordinance 2026-032 as introduced by title. Second.

I have a first from Council Member Brooks. I have a second from Council Member Davis. I'd like to discuss it a little bit, I guess. You know, is there a way to carve out the natural out of the ordinance?

If I may respond to that, the definition of crate and product that we're adopting in 031 is identical to that adopted by the state in the act to which I believe our last speaker referred, 1813.132.3. So the definition basically means any product or ingredient containing any part of the leaf of the Mitragyna speciosa plant. If the plant contains the alkaloid, boy, I tell you these are, I'm glad I did not major in science or chemistry. The alkaloid mitragynine or 7-hydroxymitragynine. or a synthetic material that contains the alkaloid, mitragynine, or 7-hydroxymitragynine. So you do have the distinction in the definition. Theoretically, we could revise the ordinance to make the distinction along the lines of, quote unquote, natural kratom, which I believe is defined in Part A, and synthetic kratom, which is defined in Part B. It could work fairly easily.

Thank you, Michael. Any further questions? Sorry, Council Member Bracken and then followed by Mayor Pro Temkavy.

Yeah, so we did look this years ago with a prior council. The state of Kratom and Cava were both reviewed at the time. At the time, there was a national push within each state for doing a review and having it become legal. The What we found at that time was that a lot of the providers were bringing in potpourri in bags and then processing them as consumable to the marketplace. Since then, these products in Kratom and Kava have now been regulated and distributed. I voted against... having Kratom and Castle Rock last time. And now keeping in spirit with supporting business owners and people's ability to function, there's a store right over by Matt Green's in Smashburger and closing somebody's business after the fact I don't think is fair. I don't think it's in the spirit of what we do and how we do it. And then I do agree with you know, not at some of the uses. The reason why I oppose it in the first place is because it was very unknown, and it was very unregulated, and it seems that we're defining now the natural use, and if we can restrict to synthetic, I think I'd be in support. That's where I'm kind of at. That's what I know about it based on what I've read. I've read the emails. I've read the testimonies, and I've read the bad stuff too. I think most of the bad stuff points to synthetic, and I think this category has come a long way since we last reviewed it. So I will not be in support of banning Kratom, but I will be in support of the synthetic option with safety as the forefront of my vote and not hurting businesses that we voted last time several years ago to allow. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem Kavey.

Chief Cauley, can I ask you a question? I know, sorry. Do we see an issue with this in town with children? That's what I'm concerned about is minors.

In speaking with the SROs, there is a concern with the kids. As far as adult population, we haven't seen anything that's been problematic as far as anything that we can have data to point to. But obviously when you're talking about kids, I think we have to be very careful on what they have access to and what they're allowed to consume. Thank you.

Sorry for the out of order.

Thank you, but David, or sorry, Michael and David.

I just want to make it clear, make sure council understands, we did in 2019 ban the sale of Kratom to minors.

And it is banned, sales of Kratom to minors is still banned under the ordinance you just introduced. This would just take it further to all retail sales.

Council Member Hollingshead.

I also wonder, you know, is there a way to restrict sales to a place that we believe can actually enforce sales to miners that's more concerned about it? I think, you know, the gas station version of this versus a specialty shop might be something we might consider. We could restrict it to a place that we believe is educated on it, can differentiate between the two. I know we're asking almost to regulate that, but I think it might be something to consider.

councilmember brooks mr mayor thank you um a couple of things don't dislike the intent of that i think the execution of that is rather sticky um you know the state has already ruled on the 708 so us making the distinction between them is unnecessary and trying to separate this um you know I'm for the ban of it, period, thingy. We don't allow marijuana sales, natural leaf marijuana, by the way. We don't allow natural leaf marijuana here. Why? As a matter of fact, the Food and Drug Administration is very arguably more kind to marijuana than Kratom. They actually restrict the import of the leaf The Food and Drug Administration restricts the import of the leaf. They take a harder stance on kratom sales, on kratom period, than they do marijuana. There are 10 states, I'm not even talking about the municipalities, Parker, Monument, other municipalities that have already outright banned kratom sales. 10 states ban it at the state level. So when we're talking about this, we're not talking about criminalizing. We're not talking about prohibiting use. In the same way, we don't allow natural leaf marijuana here in Castle Rock. People can still use it. People can still take a drive up I-25 and purchase it there, as well they can do with Kratom products. We're not prohibiting the use of it. People will still be able to get a hold of it if that's something that is important to them, if they're on a journey of... coming off of opiates, and I do appreciate the stories. But at the same time, man gets involved with jacking things up all the time. There were native cultures that used to chew just on the cocoa leaf until somebody decided to throw a bunch of gasoline on it. Next thing you know, we've got a cartel slinging it on Miami streets. That's natural. Cocoa leaf is natural. Opium is natural. So natural does not mean you can't intuit good for you through that. So this is a drug. This is a substance that has seen already considerable difficulty with it. That has included the necessity to engage legislatively at the state level There, I think, will continue to be issues with this. We have received emails, you know, about folks that have OD'd. As far as the role of government, you know, there's a punchline in there about making sure that, you know, we're not allowing foreign invasions. Didn't exactly do a good job of that several years ago. But also, federal government does control commerce. This is an area in regulatory nature that is absolutely within the role of government. I am 100% for limited and small government. Don't consider this to be an overreach whatsoever. Consider it to be more in the realm of what we have already done with natural leaf marijuana. So I'll be in favor of the outright ban because it's not consistent in my mind whatsoever with this town. As far as businesses... It's a little over the top to say that it would shutter a business because I would be hard-pressed to think of a business that only, only sells Kratom. This is a convenience product, and oh, by the way, let me get this at the vape shop, get it somewhere else. Every single business that I've researched that sells Kratom sells another product. We're not putting anybody out of business. I would not support that. So I want to be very clear that when it comes to protecting businesses in town, I'm very sensitive to that. However, this is one product. They can pull off of their shelves. and they can continue to sell the other products that they do sell. I am in favor of the same. Thank you. Council Member Meditz?

I, too, am of the same opinion. Persuasion, as Councilmember Brooks, I think we've looked at this. Castle Rock has got a lot of things that we want to keep Castle Rock in a different status. All these other things are already in place. There are the other places you can get it, places you can go. You'll still be able to use it in Castle Rock, so I will be in favor of the ban myself. Thank you. Thank you.

Any further discussion? Councilmember Bracken?

Yeah, I just feel that we already decided and the businesses have been selling it. And kind of tough to go in reverse. I wish the vote would have passed to ban it the first go around. And now I've kind of stated my position. So that's where we're at. But I'm not in favor. That's all. Further discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Council Member Hollingshead.

Yes.

Council Member Bracken. No. Council Member Davis. Yes. Council Member Brooks. Aye. Council Member Dietz.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Cavey. Yes. And Mayor Gray. Aye. Thank you. Motion passes 6-1.

Thank you. Moving on to number 15, which we will not vote on. It's 15 and 16 together. 2026-104, introduction to the 2027 budget for the town of Castle Rock. Number 16, we will vote on. 2026-105, introduction of the 2026 CRW rates and fees study and additional changes to development fees. Dave Corliss and then Mark Marlowe.

Mayor and Council, it's my privilege to provide you with an overview of the proposed 2027 town budget. Before we get into some of the specifics, I want to specifically extend my personal appreciation to our budget team. A number of them are here this evening. Kathy Engel, Trish Mueller, In addition to that, Melissa Everett in our budget office, Pete Mangers, Kristen and Matt and myself make up the budget team along with all of the department heads that work hard to present the proposed budget. Town law provides that the town manager shall recommend on an annual basis a budget. It is my role to propose. It is your role to dispose. So what my goal is, is to make sure that you know the major elements of the 2027 budget. I appreciate the opportunity to have briefed you here in the past few weeks on this budget. We will then plan on first and second readings in October. Significantly on October the 6th, we'll consider the first reading of not only the budget ordinance, but also the mill levy ordinance. And then we also have some affiliate budgets for the General Improvement District, the Downtown Development Authority, and the Business Improvement District for Miller's Landing. We have to do those annually. So we do that concurrent with our budget adoption plan. We then also will bring the service contracts that you will approve as well. We usually put those on the consent calendar. And if you have questions, we can have those pulled off. And then the county assessor gets us, usually a little bit after Thanksgiving, the final assessed valuation report. But because property taxes are such a small part of our budget, we're able to proceed with budget adoption before that. But we do then provide for second reading of the mill levy ordinance there on December the 1st. So that is our budget calendar here for the rest of the year. The primary role of budgets is to reflect town priorities. So I've been listening to council. As to what you believe the community's priorities are, it's then our role to recommend the appropriate level of resources that the community provides through taxes and fees that respond to those priorities and to respond to your direction. And that's what we're trying to do with... 2027 budget. I want to point out that we have been involved in a lot of outreach in regards to the budget. We conduct a budget open house where we encourage the community to come and learn about our budget and all the different priorities that are set out and how we use the funds that are entrusted from the community to the town. Obviously at your open houses we have discussions about the budget as well. We have boards and staff members to talk about town budgeting. Significantly we go beyond what is required by state law in regards to a public hearing. We're introducing it tonight, available for public comment. We've encouraged public comment throughout the summer in regards to the budget preparation. We put together a budget in brief that tries to explain the budget in a couple of pages. And for those that like light-time evening reading, we have on the town's website the recommended budget, which totals 400 pages. A little bit over that. So we've got the entire budget available for public review and scrutiny and we welcome questions in regards to that. Going back then to the priorities, we know that one of the top priorities that Town Council values is public safety, our police and fire departments. And you see here that we have been entrusted with the voter approved 2A to continue that plan. We're fortunate that our revenues are continuing to allow us to build beyond what we promised in the staffing 2A plan for the police and fire department. Here you see we're adding a total of five staff persons in the police department in 2027, a detective, a dispatcher, an additional traffic officer, and then two additional officers. Their primary deployment is going to be in that real-time crime center, but they'll be available for other assignments as well. I want to make it very clear that the reason why we continue to be able to put resources on this top priority of public safety continues to be the healthy sales tax growth that the community has enjoyed. We had double-digit sales tax increases, 2025 over 2024, and we continue to enjoy sales tax growth this year. It's roughly about 5% over the numbers that we've seen year-to-date, comparing 2026 to 2025. We obviously watch that closely. As a quick digression, I had my daughter in town on Friday and I went down and we took a picture of the Costco sign down at Dawson Trails. We are budgeting to include additional revenue from Costco. which is obviously very important for the community as well. It helps us achieve the staffing levels that are necessary to continue to protect the community and other things as well. There's equipment increases. You've heard me talk so... favorably about software maintenance contracts. Previous council meetings, I won't go into that. But we continue to see growth in that area as well. We do have funds set aside for the expansion of our dispatch center. We get funds from that existing tax that we all pay on our monthly phone bills for 9-1-1. We get some of that money, but we're probably going to need to spend a little bit more money from the town in regards to that expansion. And we're also going to fix the stairs there at the PD headquarters. If you've been by them, you know they're failing. And we've got a safety concern that we need to fix there as well. So we've got that in the budget. This next slide includes both the police and the fire department before I go into any more depth in regard to our recommendations for the fire department in 2027. I've been privileged to be with the town since 2015. The first budget I was involved in helping create was for 2016. You see our staffing levels for the police and fire department then, and then you also see their total budget in 24. 26, that's the budget that you all have adopted for this year. 27 is the budget that staff is recommending for 2027, and you'll consider here in the coming weeks. You see the growth both in staffing. You also see the growth in cost. We budget for one year. We plan for five. So while we're budgeting for 2027, we're doing a multi-year plan. You adopt that plan, but it's not a budget until we consider the 2028 budget roughly this time next year. And you see that growth both in staffing and cost. So that in the period from 2016 to 2026, our public safety department total cost, it was $24 million in change in 16, $60 million in change in 26. And it continues to grow as we add staff and as costs increase. I know I'm not the only one in town that... wants more sales tax, but I think I'm kind of the chief proponent of it. But that continues to help us be able to meet these demands. As Promenade has helped us with meeting our public safety needs and other sales tax needs, Over the past decade, we're thinking that Dawson Trails is going to have probably a little bit smaller, but a similar impact in regards to our ability to do these sales tax-related projects. But it is no small task for the community to go from spending $24 million for public safety in 2016 to what's estimated to be $83 million in 2031. Just point that out. Our fire department, again, the 2A plan was to add additional paramedics to the staff of the fire rescue department. That helps us fully staff station 156, which, as you know, is currently under construction under Castle Oaks Drive. It'll be opening next summer. The budget also has additional staffing in our fire rescue department, a deputy chief for administration, an emergency manager position that, while housed in the fire rescue department, will be a multi-department position. They'll be helping Mark and his staff in water, public works in regards to emergency management, all of the other different departments that are impacted by not just simply fire incidents, but any number of different types of calamities that might uh hit the community so we're excited to have that position on board and then we're rounding out the necessary training captains on the different shifts and adding another training captain so in the fire department we're recommending that we add five more positions as well we're updating our wildfire protection plan we have software that helps us predict some of the concerns in regards to that area Reclassifications is kind of an HR term for increasing compensation for certain positions, and that's what we're doing there as well. Gear, supplies, and vehicles for the positions that are listed. Significantly, the 2027 budget And we've got a pretty good estimate because we know what it costs to run a fire station from a utility standpoint, from a supply standpoint as well. And we've got funds in that 2027 budget to help us make sure that we've got the money to successfully operate Station 156 when it joins our other stations in serving the community. Probably third quarter next year. We'll see. We know that we want to get that up and operating as quickly as we can. Moving on to some other priorities in the budget. Roads. We all drive. We're all experts on the driving around the community. And we appreciate the fact that we continue to maintain our streets. My stupid saying, and you've heard of this before, is the roads don't heal themselves. We have to go in and fix them. And we do a lot of preventive maintenance to make sure we don't have to rebuild the street. Streets are like any other structure. They're susceptible to the elements. You get freeze-thaw in this part of the world. And we have to go in and do that. $18.6 million is what we have in the PMP with the primary focus in the southern part of town. We get economies of scale by targeting certain areas of the community and touching streets in that area. We're adding one staff person for the Public Works Department, a traffic signal technician. And if you're going to have one of those, you need to have a bucket truck to make sure we can help get that person up to make sure the traffic signals are working all of the time. You all made the one-year pilot commitment for Link on Demand. The funding is included in the 27 budget, but it'll be roughly this time next year that you look at a full year's data and see whether or not you want to continue it. I provided you with the August data. It was the first full month for Link on Demand. Got roughly, I think it was 4,900 rides in the Castle Rock area that Link on Demand provided. But our contract with the county just says one year. And you all will make a decision whether or not you want to continue that spending or not. We've got that in the budget accordingly. One of the other challenges that we had in putting this year's budget together is that we've had a slowdown. Yes, Mayor.

Can I ask a quick question on Link?

Yes, ma'am.

When the contract comes up next year, are we going to do... I mean, I know you sent kind of a report about how many rides we've had, but... Can we also just get feedback from the community before we make a decision? I was talking to some folks at the Art Fest. In fact, it was the Castle Rock. Oh my gosh. Thank you. That word. And they had been using it. So I just want to get kind of a feel from the community and not just statistics.

Absolutely. Mayor Portilla, that's a very good suggestion. Matter of fact, one of the suggestions we'll make, you all will decide, one of the things we have planned for early next year is the citizen survey again. And you may want to include a section in the citizen survey about link on demand. Have you used it? What did you use it for? What do you think? Or whatever type of questions you might want. So we could get a scientific survey that would do that. And then we also can have the opportunity then to collect anecdotes and other reports as well on that.

Yeah, I mean, it's one thing when you see the number of rides, but I want to hear from the community, and do they like it? Are they using it? Is it useful? Do they not like it? Do they think that, you know, we're wasting money?

Sure. No, very good suggestions, Mayor Pro Tem. You want factual statements and statements from citizens beyond the numbers.

Yes, please. Thank you.

Thank you. So this is our CIP five-year plan for how we want to invest in our transportation network. One of the challenges we're having is that, as you know, growth has slowed down in Castle Rock. I'm waiting for the thank you note from a few citizens, but it has slowed down. Last month, we issued three single-family detached building permits. So far this month, 15th of September, we've issued two. So it's slowed down. Some of it's got to do with cost of money, mortgage interest rates. Some of it's got to do with lot availability and where they are in the community. Some of it's got to do with just the overall cost of housing. When you hear from our Home Builders Association friends, They say it's got something to do with our impact fees and system development charges. I don't know if that's the case, but we'll have that discussion with them again. It probably has a lot of different factors. But if building permits slow down, our impact fee revenue and our system development charge revenue that Mr. Marlowe is going to talk about here in a few minutes, that revenue slows down. So we don't have the revenue that we traditionally would have, for example, for street projects. Four years ago, we were doing 100 building permits per month. But we're now doing substantially less. So we're getting less revenue. So we are committed, obviously, to... finishing the Fifth Street widening project. We've got a traffic signal improvement there on an annual basis that we're continuing to see where we're going to need to spend money for traffic signals. We've got some money in there for the first phase of the widening of Wolfensberger. We've got some money in there for a roundabout for a location to be determined. We do have funding in there that we've already got on design for the roundabout at West Loop Road and Crystal Valley Parkway. When District 6 has its open house, Council Member Dietz, we're going to have a board, you've seen it, that shows the proposed configuration of that roundabout. So we've got money for that. But some of these outer year projects, we're going to really just have to watch our revenue because you see there at the bottom, impact fee revenue. If that revenue's not there... we're probably not going to be able to do the project because we're probably not going to be able to move money around to be able to do it. So that's a real concern. Growth slows down. Impact fee revenue slows down. Our ability to respond to the demands of growth slows down as well. I just want to make that point clear. I believe in Castle Rock. I think we're still going to see some level of growth within the community. We also know that the community has significant concerns in regards to that. So we're trying to respond to all of those things as well. But here you see the recommended five-year CIP for transportation. Parks and Recreation is one of our top priorities. As Councilmember Davis mentioned, we're making great progress on the Sports Center. If you all want a tour, let me know. Give me some specific dates. Brian Peterson is a guide par excellence. I couldn't understand... Councilmember Davis and... Brian Peterson, our project manager, could talk construction stuff. I didn't necessarily follow everything, but I was very impressed with the facility, and it's moving along really well. So if there's opportunities where you want to go in and look at it, it's on schedule. When they tell you it's on schedule, that tells me it's a little bit ahead of schedule, but we'll see. There's obviously a lot of things that have to happen in order to make sure that it's ready and available to be used. One of the significant things that the Parks and Recreation Department is going to do is they're going to offer a multi-center pass for the community, that the community can buy a pass for either the individual or family, and they can use either the rec center, the MAC, or the new sports center. We've traditionally just segregated out for each individual one. So we have a comfort level that we can do that. That is important because while we're paying for the sports center, We issued certificates of participation. We're going to get impact fee revenue, and then we're going to get our portion of the sales tax and 100% of the lodging tax from Brickyard to help us retire those certificates of participation for the sports center. The sports center in our community center fund is very similar to the rec center and the MAC. It is operated with a very modest tax subsidy. They get 5.25% of the town's 4% sales tax. The rest of it comes from membership, admission fees, tournament fees. So that's how we operate those facilities. We never recover the capital cost, but we try and make sure that it can operate well within the small amount of sales tax that it gets, and then the rest of it is membership fees. You see that we're adding five new positions, five full-time, for the new sports center, which will be open seven days a week. We'll have a number of part-time staff, and then operate accordingly there as well. We are planning funding to do the planning for the connection up to the county's McAnta open space facility. That includes some of the trails. We've talked about trails in this room a little bit this year as well. So we are working to make sure that that happens. We are getting some public land dedication. We actually have it. We own it now at the southern end of Dawson Trails. We want to plan that property. I also am going to ask, next meeting we have an executive session where we can talk about a potential ice hockey facility. We think we're far enough along where we can talk about more specifics in regards to that at the property there closer to Costco. So we'll talk about that as well. We also are continuing to make some improvements out at Lost Canyon Ranch and at Cantrell. So the budget includes all of those items. And then here is the elevation renderings and all of that of the sports center. And again, I encourage you all to be more than happy to schedule an opportunity to get in and give a tour in regards to that. Opening mid-year next year. I'm not going to talk about water because Mark's going to talk about water. And you see here, this is kind of the Artemis level view, the 50,000 miles up kind of view of water and water rates. So we won't spend any time on that because Mark's going to spend a lot more on it. We are adding some other staff positions. with adding a new fire station and the sports center. We need another senior maintenance technician in our facilities division. That's not in the parks department budget. That's in our facilities division, which is part of the town manager's office. We need another computer tech in our do-it division. You all are very familiar, and you need to contain your excitement about the fact that we're getting a new financial software. Here, soon we need a financial systems analyst to help us with that project. We want to add another sales tax auditor. We have a very successful program where we work successfully with businesses to recover funds that were due and to make sure that everybody's got that level playing field as far as paying for sales tax. Sales tax, $100 million this year in sales tax. Even more next year. $1.6 million for property tax. Would I trade some more property tax for maybe something on sales tax? Sure. Do I want to be responsible for that ballot measure where I'm asking for more property taxes? Not so much. So we feel comfortable in being able to move forward on that. We do have compensation increases. We have a number of different pay plans. It's a different pay plan for our public safety employees and then the rest of employees as well. That's all outlined in the budget and in the transmittal letter. Health insurance costs, 15% increase. Sales tax isn't growing that fast. So we have to make adjustments elsewhere in the budget. It's not going to be a 15% increase to town employees. There will be some premium increases. We try and keep them modest. The rest of it's on the town as the employer. But I don't know what to do about health care. I mean, if you think it's expensive, wait until the federal government makes it free. I don't know. So anyway, it's just a very large expense, but it is a necessary benefit. It's one of the reasons why we continue to attract and retain the quality employees that we do right now. So we'd like to protect that program and keep our health plan healthy. So with that, I am happy to respond to questions. You'll have questions on the water as well, but you can wait for Mark on his presentation. Happy to respond to that. Be sure and read that transmittal letter. Really appreciate the work from staff. Kristen does a great job of wordsmithing that transmittal letter to give you even more additional details in regards to the budget. And then there's 400 pages of... It's not quite a million dollars a page, but it kind of feels like it sometimes. But it's a very important document. It really serves as our marching orders. Once you've adopted it, then we go about and implement it. And that's the direction that we want to proceed once we know that you all have seen the budget and spent time asking questions about it, and then we can work it. The cover of the budget really should be along the themes of we don't lack for good ideas, we just lack for all the revenue to pay for them. We've got a lot of great ideas on what to spend money on, and you all have mentioned a number of them in some of my briefings. And I don't disagree with them, but this is kind of a packet high and tight and make sure that the top priority, public safety, is well attended to. And that's what we've tried to do in this budget, is make sure they've got the staffing to be able to accomplish the things they need. Happy to respond to questions.

Since we don't have, since we're not voting on this, we can do questions or comments. Council Member Brooks.

Mr. Mayor, thank you. You know, we had quite a bit of public outreach regarding bike trails, single track trails in town. I know that just what you talked about, you know, there's a big old long list of wants, but we've got to get to those needs first. Still, that being said, Is there some money in what Parks and Rec has to deal with as far as improvements? Not necessarily to the point of the expansion that I think some folks in the public had asked for, but at least trying to kind of meet halfway to make things a little bit better for the big bicycle users, single track users in town.

Councilmember, thank you for your question. I think the answer is yes. We have funding to be able to attend to some of the maintenance needs. There'll be a shift in some of our park staff away from so much turf management to being able to work a little bit on some of the trail management and including being able to use some contractors to do some rehab maintenance of some of the trails that you heard described that needed attention. Got a commitment from parks that they're going to be able to get to that. And then we are planning, everybody knows where the McAnta development is. That is in the unincorporated county. It's immediately adjacent to Crowfoot Valley Road, which at least in my driving experience looks like the town has got it finished work on that. The county, as part of that development, received, I think it's approximately 250, 300 acres of open space, and they are planning a trail system there that will be available for biking, mountain biking included in that. And we're involved in that planning, and then we're involved in providing a connection from Castle Oaks Drive and some of the trails that we have in regards to that, a connection from that over to Macanta. So we're in the process of doing it. So we are expanding the number of mountain biking-type trails within the general community. As is usual with so many of the things that we have to do, we have to look for a partner. And in this case, the partner is Douglas County in regards to their open space. So I believe we're paying attention to that concern.

Other questions or comments from council?

Thank you, David. And I don't know if you want to let public comment on that now or not. Do you want to have public comment on the budget?

On the budget, sure. I had no one standing to speak. If someone wishes to speak, please approach the podium and speak through microphones. Please state your name, whether you're a resident, non-resident, or business owner. You have four minutes. Seeing none, we'll move on to number 16, Mark Barlow.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. I did want to make sure this is just an introduction of the rates and fees tonight. So I want to make sure we were on the same page about that. We won't be voting on this tonight, I don't think.

I was told we were. I think it's really just to go ahead and have Mark bring back an ordinance. Very similar to what I'm bringing back an ordinance on the entire budget, but that's fine.

Yes. Okay. Great. First of all, I do want to thank Nicole Bussey. She's here tonight. The rates and fees is a huge undertaking. As council knows, we do a rates and fees study every year. We bring in an outside consultant, nationally recognized consultant that's an expert in this area. And we study our rates and fees. This is not something that every water utility does. Typically, they do these rates and fees studies on a five-year basis. Castle Rock Water does it by design every year. And that's primarily because we are a cost of service utility. And we want to make sure that the rates and fees that we are charging are appropriate for the costs of the actual service that's being provided. And so we review that every year. And as you know, we bring these rates and fees back to council for consideration. There's really two pieces to this that are important. Rates and fees, of course, for existing customers. And then we'll talk a little bit about system development fees for new development, where the concept is that growth pays for growth with respect to water. So just a little bit of quick history. I know typically rates don't go down, but I do want to point out 2022, we did reduce rates that year. But this is what we've done since 2022 through 2026. And this is what we've done on system development fees. And I just will point out there's some pretty big numbers here. And there's a reason for that. Renewable water supplies have gone up in cost much faster than inflation. In fact, I was looking at some numbers today for the Colorado Big Thompson project, which is a good indicator of renewable water costs. And the costs for that water have gone up over 700% since 2010. So very large increases in the cost of some of the water. So some of the things that we are considering, of course, as you know, as council knows, we are still trying to convert to renewable water supply for the community. And that's really the primary long-term cost we continue to face. Some of the big things that are in that include this WISE project that we have to eventually provide desalinization for, to remove salt from the water. Our customers might be very upset about that. And then several other big projects here that we need to continue as a part of this long-term water supply. From a financial standpoint, we do plan this out through 2065. So we look at our capital budgets all the way out to 2065, and we have financial models for each of the separate enterprises. So as Council knows, we track stormwater separate from water resources, separate from wastewater, and separate from water. And each one of those has a financial model modeled out through 2065. We obviously, the idea here for doing that is to try to smooth rate increases so we don't have rate shock in any one particular year, especially with respect to existing customers. And then we also, of course, want to maintain specific balances for reserves. And that's catastrophic failure reserves. That's rate revenue stabilization reserves. For example, in a year where we maybe have more rain than we expect and we don't sell enough water, we may need to stabilize those rates with that reserve. And then, of course, debt is part of what we are looking at. At Castle Rock Water, as you know, we already have debt, and we are looking at several more issuances over the coming five to ten years. Growth forecast, we obviously have to forecast what we think we're going to have in terms of growth, and it's really slowed down, as Mr. Corliss said, and no different than the rest of the town. That could very well impact the speed with which we can build renewable water projects because those revenues obviously help provide economies of scale for us to be able to build those projects more quickly. We have assumed an average annual growth of about 390 residential units. And we do have, as council knows, some extra territorial areas as well. And so we do get some additional growth in those areas outside of what the town sees, McAnta being one of those areas. And then one of the important things we have to do is look at water supply versus water demand every year. And we have a model that goes out also through 2065 looking every year at how much water we need and what the timing of that water is as we continue to grow. Things that have impacted the costs, construction costs, water costs, renewable water scarcity. Council's well aware of the scarcity issues with the Colorado River and some of the other rivers that we're dealing with. That just drives up the cost for renewable water supplies. Much faster, quite frankly, than home building costs, I believe. And then, of course, we have many other issues, regulatory and permitting. And then we do have reserves we put in place. And these reserves are there. We have an operational reserve. We have a catastrophic failure reserve and a rate revenue reserve. And currently, those are about at 1.2% of the total assets. Rate structure strategy. There is one thing that we're going to be looking at going forward, not this year, but in the coming years, our water resources fee is a fixed fee. And we've continued to have to address that fee every year. We are looking at next year taking a look at converting some of that increase to a volumetric or a variable rate fee based on how much people use to try to balance that. As you know, Variable rates help us send a conservation message. And if our fixed fees become too high and our variable fees too low, we won't be sending that conservation message in a strong enough manner. So we will be looking at that next year. However, we're not doing it this year. Five-year CIP, interestingly enough, the five-year number has come down a little bit, so that's a good thing. But you can see the biggest portion of our costs are in the water resources fund. That's where you see the really big dollars, and that's part of that conversion to renewable water supply. Projects that we're looking at in the five-year window, and I'll really hit mainly on the ones for 2027. We're going to be doing a big rehab project down in Young American. And rehab is really important. Sometimes we forget about rehab and replacement of the old infrastructure. But when you have 500-plus miles of water lines beneath the roads, you need to actually go back in and fix those every year. 50 or 60 years. And that's a tremendous cost. And we've seen the cost for those projects go way up. You can see $8 million for the water and another $1.5 million for the wastewater for the Young American project. We're going to be continuing to finish our SCADA master plan projects. As Council knows, we're on a 10-year time frame to replace all of our SCADA system. That's our control systems. Cyber security and all the things related to that. We're going to be making some major upgrades to the Ray Waterman treatment plant for pumping. We've got some tanks that we need to build in the five-year window. The water resources side, we're going to be finally building a pipeline from East Plum Creek to Ruder Hess Reservoir. The good news there, as council knows, we did get a federal grant of $1.75 million to help with that. It looks like we're going to get a grant from the state as well that might even be larger than the grant we got from the federal government. So fingers crossed. We'll find out Thursday. But the cost of that project is significant, of course. You can see $27.5 million for 2027. And as council knows, we started that project this year to the tune of about $5 million. Why is desalinization project? We've got to budget for this. We have to currently contractually build a desalinization facility by 2030. And that's a tremendous amount of money. The good news is we are looking at potentially partnering with Aurora Water to push that out. So we are actually trying to push those costs out, and that is becoming a real possibility. But we have to budget for it until that contract gets revised. We have several other large projects we have to build in order to make sure we can take full advantage of the capacity that we're building at the Plum Creek Water Purification Facility, and that's an upsize to a big pipeline on Liggett Road, and then another raw water pipeline coming back from our reservoirs at Sedalia that also has to be upsized. On the wastewater side, I want to make sure council understands we've got money in there for the Sedalia collection system, but that money will not come from Castle Rock Water. That money will be from either the county or from system development fees paid by people connecting to that system. And then stormwater, we've got one major project plan, and that's McMurdo Gulch. It's the section of McMurdo Gulch that goes through the county and the town, and we're moving that forward. We are seeking money from the Cherry Creek Basin Water Quality Authority, support from them as well for that project. Major operational cost impacts. We are finishing up advanced metering infrastructure. We've got our WISE operating costs. Those are going up. As Council knows, we're going to be taking our full subscriptions in the coming years. So we have to pay for those costs. Electricity costs continue to rise. And, of course, personnel costs continue to go up as well. The good news is we're not asking for any new positions in 2027. We're trying to hold the line with the staffing that we currently have. Proposed rates. So these are the proposed rates for 2027. And we're also showing what we've got going through 2031 based on our five-year plan. 4.82%. This is very similar to what we projected last year for 2027. We were at 4.76 roughly. So we're fairly close to what we were projecting last year for 2027. And that's what we're projecting based on this year's rates and fees study. You can see the largest number is in the water resources fee. And that's that conversion to renewable water. Did want to mention something that we would like council to consider for us to bring forward as a part of the rates and fees. And that is we've still got roughly 400 customers that exceed 40,000 gallons in a month, typically. And of those, about 200 of those customers actually exceed 50,000 gallons in a month and up. to as much as over 100,000 gallons. Now, typical home in Castle Rock uses about 8,000 gallons. So what we want to do is provide some additional incentive for some of those really large residential users to bring some of that water use down. So what we want to do is propose these, if you go above 50,000 gallons, Instead of a $10.83 surcharge, you would go to a $21.66 surcharge between $50 and $100. And if you're going over $100, a $32.49 per 1,000 gallon surcharge. So we want council to at least think about that. We'd like to propose that to, as I said, bring down some of that usage or encourage that. The other thing I did want council to know, we are taking a look at the senior discount system. What we'd really like to bring back, and we won't have it for this rates and fees study, but what we'd like to bring back is instead of a senior discount, more of an income-based discount, because the bottom line is we've got other folks very much like seniors on fixed incomes that may have income challenges, and we feel like that would probably be a more appropriate approach than just addressing seniors. So we are going to bring that back for council consideration in a couple of months. But it requires a little more study. This is what a bill, an average bill, would look like in the winter and the summer. And it shows you what the increase that we're proposing would look like in the winter and the summer. And then this is on an annual basis. So this shows you for various size meters what these costs look like on an annual basis and what those changes are on an annual basis. And you can see in our 2025 study what we were projecting for 2027 is fairly close to what we have come back with recommending. This just, I always like to show how we compare to other water providers around us. So we're the green bar, obviously, and the purple bars are some of our competition. So I think we continue to be fairly competitive with some of our surrounding water providers with respect to existing customer rates and fees. Now I'm going to switch to system development fees. So these are the things where growth pays for growth. And unfortunately, the costs are really going up for improvements and additional infrastructure needed to support that additional growth. And as I said, renewable water is not getting any cheaper. It's going up very fast in cost. So you can see the proposed fees. To be clear, down at the bottom, the total, that is in the Cherry Creek Basin or the Plum Creek Basin. That's what those various numbers at the bottom refer to. And that's based on the stormwater. There's a reason that the Cherry Creek number has gone up so much. The bottom line is the amount of development projected in the basin has decreased significantly, while the costs of the improvements have not decreased. And so those costs are carried over a smaller number of single-family equivalents in the Cherry Creek Basin. I do want to point out that last year when we presented these, we already knew that we were a little behind on some of our system development fees. And we were trying to phase in these large increases over a number of years. This is what 2027 and 2028, this is generally what those looked like in the previous rate proposal in 2025. We do see that we're going to need to continue escalating those system development fees going forward unless costs go down. I do want to point out, as I said, we did introduce these numbers to the Economic Development Committee Water Subcommittee several weeks ago. So we've done some outreach to them already about these costs. And we will be meeting with the head of the Metro Denver HBA to talk to him about some of these costs. And I know we've had some comments also from home builders already. But I do want to point out that we worked very hard on our system development fees, as you know, several months ago as we were going through 2026. And we took a new approach to try to ensure that our system development fees were accurately reflecting the actual usage by various types of housing. And we came to the conclusion it was based on actual square footage for the house. And so what you see is for smaller houses there's a discount to these system development fees. And I want to point this out because this I think helps us understand a little bit about where we really are with respect to system development fees. The two orange bars near the top are a full system development fee for us. But I want to note, if I go back, the average sized house being built in Castle Rock is between 4,500, around 4,500 square feet. Okay? And what that means is they're getting, they're paying .87. percent of that full system development fee, which drops you down to the next two orange bars. Now there's been a lot of talk from home builders about attainable housing. And the bottom line is my understanding of attainable housing, at least reading about what the Urban Land Institute talks about with respect to that, is they're talking more around 1,400 square feet. And that puts us way down here near the bottom of this chart, the two orange bars down here near the bottom. If you add a basement to that 1,400 square feet at 2,400 square feet, you're just below Arapahoe County. And then if you use the square footage that the Metro Denver HBA used in their system development fee study and actually their impact fee study, it puts us just below Parker Water. So the two orange bars more in the middle. All right. So this is the introduction tonight. We'll be going to Water Commission in a week or two. And then this will come back for first and second reading in October. And I'm happy to answer any questions.

Mayor Portemcady.

I just have to ask, who uses 40,000 gallons? I'm sorry, I have to ask like that's insane to me. Well, we- I mean, I don't need somebody's name, but what are you doing to use that kind of water?

Unfortunately, most of it's outdoor use, so irrigation. Wow. So again, I think it's a great question. And it's a tremendous amount of water when you think the average home in Castle Rock is only using, oh, about 125,000 gallons in an entire year. So obviously, I think we need to incentivize folks that are in those categories to take a look at some Colorado scape.

I would agree with you. I mean, that's just crazy. Anyway, thank you.

Any more questions for Mark or staff? Seeing none, I do have a non-resident speaker signed up. Morgan Collin.

Good evening, Mayor and council members. My name is Morgan Cullen and I'm here tonight on behalf of the Home Builders Association of Metro Denver. First of all, we recognize Castle Rock has significant responsibilities when it comes to maintaining reliable and sustainable water supply, and we support responsible investment in the town's future. However, we are asking Council to carefully consider the proposed increases in water fees given the substantial cost of building a home in Castle Rock today. Builders are currently paying over $100,000 in permit and development-related fees for a typical single-family home, and that is a tremendous upfront cost that directly impacts the feasibility and affordability of new housing. And we believe that there is an important fiscal consideration for the town as well. When development fees cost and become too high, fewer projects move forward. Fewer projects mean fewer building permits and ultimately less permit revenue for the town. We are already seeing that trend. Castle Rock has processed only 105 residential permits so far this year and has processed zero permits in July and August.

I think Dave mentioned like five or something like that.

So there's a discrepancy there. Three years ago, the town was averaging nearly 500 permits during the same period. That decline should give all of us pause. Increasing fees on an already shrinking pool of development activity may increase revenue on an individual permit, but it can also make projects less feasible, further reduce construction activity, and ultimately reduce the overall revenue generated by the permits. We are not asking for new development to avoid paying its fair share. We are asking that those costs be reasonable, proportionable, and balanced against the very real need for housing affordability and continued development activity. At a time when the cost of building housing is already at historic levels, we should be looking at ways to moderate those costs, not continue adding to them. So on behalf of the HBA of Metro Denver, we respectfully ask Council to consider the magnitude and timing of these proposed increases and work with the development community on a more balanced approach. Thank you for your time this evening. Thank you, Morgan.

I know it's not a speaker so much to speak for support the podium speaking microphone to state your name whether a resident or a business owner, you have 4 minutes to speak. Seeing none we're back to town Council. Mark said no. I was told yes, but we're not.

Let me just make a quick comment. This is something that I wanted to address in my council comments, but I think I was already at like 20 minutes on those, so I figured maybe I could, you know, seam it in here a little bit. Also, when it comes to the budget increases with fire and police, those are substantial increases. I do want to point out that in the... Castle Rock Fire Department, the report that we were given in our packet, I noticed that calls this year to date had increased by 350. If my math is not completely off, it's somewhere around 7% to 8% increase. Overall, though, CRFD in the month of August fielded 23 calls per day. 23 calls a day. So continuing to make these staffing changes, staffing up in fire and in police. Just something, even though the numbers can be a little staggering, something that obviously we have to do because the demand is continuing to increase as well. So just a quick little point I wanted to make on that. Thank you. It's a good point.

As we age, we call the fire department more.

Councilmember Hollingshead. Yeah, Mark, I appreciate your different bars and the different colors there. You know, the 20% increase seems huge, but I recognize that the smaller houses, that won't be as significant. Could you, when you come back, could you just bring us a 2,000 square foot house, 4,000 square foot house, 6,000 square foot house, what it was in 2024 for fees and what it would be in 2027? And just so we can kind of see that, how some it won't be an increase, but some will be significant.

Absolutely, Council Member Hollingshead. I guess the key, just to make sure we're clear, and I'm going to go back to this chart just to make sure we all understand. There's still an increase for, say, a 1,400 square foot home proportional, but it's just that the actual total cost of that system development fee is much lower. And so those attainable housing, the smaller housing, can really moderate those fees to be more competitive. And if you look across the Denver metro area, I was trying to do a little bit of this research over the last week or so, Castle Rock has pretty big houses compared with the rest of the metro Denver area. And so our fees for these smaller houses become fairly competitive when the houses are smaller. But we'll absolutely bring that back. We can show you what a 20. Keep in mind, we didn't have the square footage percentages in 2024. Right.

That's what I'm saying. So some of it will show actually almost maybe close to a decrease or flat, I would think.

Yes.

Thanks. Thank you, Mark.

We'll see you in a few weeks. 17. ORDINANCE 2026-34, ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE ISSUANCE OF SALE OF WATER AND SEWER ENTERPRISE REVENUE BONDS OR REVENUE REFUNDING BONDS OR BOTH PAYABLE SOLELY OUT OF THE NET PLEDGED REVENUES TO BE DERIVED FROM THE OPERATION OF THE TOWN'S WATER AND SEWER ENTERPRISE. PROVIDING OTHER DETAILS CONCERNING BONDS, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, COVENANTS AND AGREEMENTS CONNECTION THEREWITH. providing other matters relating to thereto and repealing Ordinance Number 2025-29, finally adopted on August 19, 2025, relating to 2025 bonds. 2025 bonds. Mark Marlowe.

thank you mayor and council you can't get rid of rid of me quite yet because i've got this one as well obviously so um i do want to point out that um there is a debt issuance in the 2027 budget for castle rock water this this is very similar to what we did august of last year Whoops. Excuse me. So if council remember in August of 2025, we basically did this ordinance that provided us with a year approximately to go ahead and issue revenue bonds under certain parameters. And what we want to do is basically re-up that and continue to both watch the market and also Look at when we are actually going to need to issue these revenue bonds. And one of the key things, if growth is slowing down in Castle Rock and we can't build our renewable water projects as fast as we were, that may push these revenue bonds out potentially. But we do need the flexibility for this debt if we need to move forward more quickly to build the infrastructure. And that's what we're really looking for here. So this ordinance repeals the previous one and puts a new one in place. It preserves that flexibility for us to watch both the market conditions, cash flow, and the timing of projects for the best time to issue debt. And as a part of this ordinance, there is one piece that we hope will definitely go forward. So we are seeking a loan from the Colorado Water Conservation Board because we get a reduced rate through them. So a rate better than what we would get if we go with revenue bonds out on the open market. So about a half a percent. We are looking at a loan of around $30 million from CWCB, and the primary purpose of that loan is going to be to pay for the East Plum Creek to Reuter Hess pipeline project, which has to go forward because of our federal grant and also our hopefully Colorado state grant that we're going to get. If we are going to find out if we get the Colorado Water Conservation Board loan in November. And if we get that loan, this ordinance reduces the amount of revenue bonds that we can issue by that loan. So the ordinance currently calls for up to $66 million in revenue bonds. If we get this loan, that would be reduced by the amount of the loan automatically. Now, the net effective interest rate maximum is 5% in this ordinance. Final maturity no later than December 2046. I will say the CWCB loan is a 10-year loan. And right now, 10-year maturities both in terms of the loan and also in terms of revenue bonds are a better deal than 20- or 30-year revenue bonds from an interest rate standpoint if we can afford it. We can definitely afford the CWCB loan. The revenue bonds, we'll just have to wait and see how that plays out. We are one slight change to the ordinance in August of last year. We are asking for refunding authority for the three bond issuances that we have out now in case interest rates allow us to put ourselves in a better position and reduce our borrowing costs. I'm not sure if I expect that to happen. And then with any revenue bonds, obviously there's projects that have to be tied to that. These are the projects that those revenue bonds would be issued for. These are the same projects in the budget, essentially, so I won't spend a lot of time there. And of course... There's no immediate impact to the budget until we actually issue the revenue bonds. Now, annual debt service by this ordinance is limited to $5.5 million and total repayment costs of $108 million. So that's also part of this. And then you can see the debt service is just based on the water and sewer revenues. So that is all that can be used to pay these back. And they are on parity with our other bonds. And then the refunding bonds also, they have a maximum repayment of 4.3 annually and 33 million total. And this is the schedule for this one. This is first reading on this one tonight. And the reason for that is we want to go ahead and get this in place so that we are able to move forward if interest rates end up in a good place. The other thing this ordinance does allow us to do, obviously, or actually you passed at the last council meeting, is it allows us to go back 60 days and use anything from the date that this is passed back 60 days, we can use these revenue bonds for as well. And with that, any questions?

Any questions for Mark Marlowe? Seeing none, I have no one signed to speak. If anyone wishes to speak, please approach the podium and speak in a microphone. Please state your name, whether you are a resident, non-resident, or business owner. You will have four minutes to speak. Seeing none, I'll now close the public hearing, bringing the item back to council for further discussion and a motion.

I move to approve ordinance 2026-034 as introduced by title.

Second. First by Councilmember Hollinson, second by Councilmember Brooks. Any further discussion? A lot of information, a lot of good information. Thank you, Mark. Roll call vote.

Council Member Hollington.

Yes.

Council Member Bracken. Yes. Council Member Davis. Yes. Council Member Brooks. Aye. Council Member Dietz. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Katie. Yes. And Mayor Gray. Aye. Thank you. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you.

Number 18. Mayor, given the time, I would request that council consider a motion to extend the meeting past 9.30 to the conclusion of the executive session discussion.

Do we need to do that even though we're not returning? Yes.

All right. Because you're meeting. It's just an executive session meeting. Mm-hmm.

I vote to extend. Second.

First from Governor Bracken, second from Mayor Pro Tem Katie. Roll call vote, please.

Council Member Hollingstead. Yes. Council Member Bracken. Yes. Council Member Davis. Yes. Council Member Brooks. Aye. Council Member Dietz. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Katie. Yes. And Mayor Gray.

Yes.

Thank you. Motion passes.

Thank you. Number 18, adjourned to executive session not to return, 2026-11. Executive Session, consider a motion to recess into Executive Session for the purpose of having Conference of the Town Attorney to receive legal advice enforcement provisions related to Chapter 2.05 of the Castle Rock Town Code, all pursuant to CRS 24-6-4024B. The Town Council will not return. I'll accept the motion.

Mr. Mayor, I move to adjourn to executive session.

Second. First by Council Member Brooks, second by Council Member Dietz. Roll call vote, please.

Yes. Council Member Hollingshead. Yes. Council Member Bracken. Yes. Council Member Davis. Yes. Council Member Brooks. Aye. Council Member Dietz. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Cavey. Yes. Mayor Gray. Aye. Thank you. Motion passes.

I will gavel out and we will not return. Thank you for coming.

Thank you.