Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

But it was out in this world.

I was just like, how do they not have a, of course they don't have them because it's in Crested Butte, but there was a way to call them and say, hey, you guys need to go to that restaurant. You got to go, it's amazing.

It should be five. It should be five.

It should be five. It should be five.

It should be five. It should be five.

Yeah. It's 603. August 19, 2026. This is Georgetown Planning Commission. Can I get a... You want to talk?

Jay Cooper?

Present.

Kathy Haight, Shane Henry, Christian Nixon, Chris Sandberg?

Here.

Natasha Jackson?

Here.

Lauren Martin? Here.

Is everybody ready to move. Yes, I have a motion to approve the agenda as written.

I would recommend that you add the acceptance of the resignation of our commissioners.

I'm going to make a motion to amend the agenda to accept the resignation of Shane Henry and Kathleen Houghton. Do I have a second? I second. All those in favor? Motion to approve. The motion passes. Thanks. Okay. Um, do I have a motion to approve the agenda is ready. I'm not sure.

Well, we just did a motion to approve the agenda.

Ask them to amend it.

Yeah.

Oh, so if you make a motion to amend it, you don't have to make another motion to approve it.

Yeah, your agenda as an individual.

Yeah.

So I'm first for Jake and a second for Ms. Marshall. And just for the record, Christian Mason is also present.

Do we have any audience business?

There are no members of the community in attendance online.

We're on. Minutes approval for July 15, 2026. Is everybody? I'm starting to get second page and back up. I'm going to make the motion. Excuse me. A motion to approve the agenda from Wednesday, July 15, 2006. Do you want to make the motions? Oh, I don't know.

Motion to approve the minutes from July 16, 2006. I second. I second. I can second. I think you can too. Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'll take a few seconds. Yes.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- Thanks oh i'm sorry motion passes. HAB-Masyn Moyer- The action item is the proposed edition of recreational animals as permitted use. HAB-Masyn Moyer- As a permitted use and gateway commercial and. HAB-Masyn Moyer- we'll start with that we have a staff report.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- Yes. HAB-Masyn Moyer- My go ahead.

Good evening. This is Mike Davenport with Community Matters Institute as planning consultant to the town of Georgetown. As you may recall, earlier this summer, Planning Commission recommended to the Board of Select- Mike, hold on.

We can hardly hear you. Can you get closer to your microphone?

Okay, I'm closer. Can you hear me?

We got lots of louder than there is.

Can you hear me now? A little bit better.

Maybe just speak a little more slowly, Mike, a little more clearly.

Okay, I will do that. As you probably recall earlier this summer, Planning Commission recommended to the Board of Selectmen to add recreational rentals as a special use in the historic commercial zone district. At its last meeting, the Board of Selectmen decided to add it as a permitted use in the historic commercial zone district. And the reason they did this was to help promote business and economic development of the town. And again, as you probably recall, The difference between a special use and a permitted use is that a special use requires a hearing, because in order to check and see if there are any impacts that would cause a concern. Also, the Board of Selectmen adopted the definition which you had recommended. So This memo is eventually very is essentially very similar to the memo you saw on the special use in the historic commercial use. But now we are looking at the gateway commercial use district. As I mentioned, the definition has already been adopted, but it's repeated in the memo for your convenience. I've also identify or describe the different types of uses that are allowed in zone districts. And also checking the map the different maps and plans of the town. The two as you again as was the case in your previous hearing on the historic commercial zone district. They the comprehensive plan of the town has several provisions that support doing this. including protecting the historic character of the community and helping to diversify the economy and purge development to attract visitors and recognizing that the local economy is heavily based upon both tourism, recreational tourism as well as heritage tourism for people who are interested in the history of the community. In the memo, you have as attachments a list of the existing uses in the zone district, both the permitted uses, which are also referred to often as uses by right, and you have a list of the special uses that are allowed in the district or that are allowed in any district in Georgetown. And so based upon the fact that the application, Proposed change is consistent with the comprehensive plan. The committee matters is to do is recommending your recommendation of approval to the board of select men. And so there is an attached memo that attach moat recommended motion in the memo and the in addition to the users that are listed there also is at the very end of this memo a map of the gateway commercial zone district if you need to be able to see the boundaries of the district. And that is the staff report. Thanks.

Does anyone have any questions about the difference between a special use that are made use.

So I think Keisha was telling me earlier that last time we voted on a special use permit for the historic district, correct?

Yes, the historic commercial district.

We voted to allow a special use.

And it was changed by the first second to a use by right. Permitted use. So this is just evening the I feel for the rest of your son yet. So if you're all good with it on page 3 there is a recommended motion.

I know it's right when the addition of their racial rentals are permitted use in the game, the commercial zone.

The story about a second so Christian second to do all there. I was most of us. Thanks, Mike.

Thank you. Good evening.

Thank you. Next on the action items is the excessive absenteeism policy discussion and recommendation to remove members in violation. There is a very I think this already took care of itself.

Yes, and I will also note that Chris's presence here today puts them at 60% attendance.

So I don't think anything needs to be talked about other than I just would want to say that we would expect attendance and if you're not going to be here, an excused absence ahead of time would be nice because we do need a quorum and right now we have five in person. A quorum, please.

Hopefully we can get those seats filled pretty quickly. Is there something we should put on like agenda for next week or is it something we can talk about now as far as like new members that we need?

So the town will put up a flyer on the bulletin board in the library, or sorry, in the post office and outside of the building here. And where else?

Online.

J. Online so and then as members, y'all can reach out to people that y'all think are would be great assets to the board in town and say, hey, can you put in a letter 10 J. They'll be interviewed the next week. We need so many more. We have to have somebody for more than one. The next seat. The other seat can be from any work, but we have to have a seat for one. J.

You can recruit whoever Because even if they can't fill that Ward 1 seat, it would be an alternate.

Okay, clear. What's the street called?

9th Street until Taos, and then east of Taos is 10th Street.

Yeah, and Ward 1 does this little weird thing where it zigzags over.

At 9th and 10th at Taos. So this side of 9th Street, everybody, and then... on the east side of Taos, it goes all the way to 10th.

So, and then do we have anything else to talk about on that action item? Does the comprehensive plan, Asia, have some, this packet for us? We should get some stuff popped and stuff. Yes.

So we're still working on some contract negotiations with DOLA for the grant they're providing to us, but won't be a problem. It's just not quite decided yet.

Is DOLA the folks we met with last week?

Yes. Okay. Yes. Todd is our DOLA representative.

I do want to go to that meeting with you guys before the meeting, or we can do it after the meeting, and I want you all to be the packets if you don't have them. in case you kind of run over that a little bit with you guys.

Okay. So once that is finalized for DOLA, we can post, this is a draft request for proposal, just so you guys have an idea of how we obtain contractors for this sort of thing. So we have to post, let's call it an RFP, a request for proposal, on certain formal websites, there's a schedule, and we'll probably recruit some people as well, submit bids to us, and that will be approved This is the proposed R&P right now that we will have soon. There's a couple things in there that the state requires, such as the housing action plan and the water needs assessment that we're actually doing separately. So we'll take those out of this. But they're in there just to kind of have an idea of the comprehensive requirements for our master plan. They just will be conducted separately because All right, she's been doing our water assessment already has completed most of the water assessment plan and the clear creek regional housing authority is doing a regional housing action plan. So those will cover our requirements for the comprehensive plan. So those elements will not be included in the actual comprehensive plan. What did the water assessment say? Um, they said that basically they're recommending a pressurization. So right now our pressure is gravity based. We have a big tank that's on the other side of the highway that there's a bunch of watering that pressurizes our system. What that does though is it makes it very sensitive. Like we are having to balance it very carefully because we just have this one point that's So what happens is if people uphill have weak water pressure and if people downhill have really high water pressure, and we can't really change that because if we change it, it'll make one side or the other worse. And we also have a bunch of water that's just sitting there basically that we can't use because it's being used to pressurize the system. So what they are proposing is that we install a house in Midtown basically that can Pressurize uphill and downhill separately to make it a little easier to get higher water pressure uphill, lower water pressure downhill, in the middle it'll stay about the same. And that was the project that the board approved in our last budget cycle and we're currently working on already.

Will that change the overall water pressure?

Yes.

Does that have great water pressure? I don't think it could go down.

You're in the middle of town, so yours will be about the same.

Okay.

Yeah, so people uphill will have higher water because theirs is weaker right now. Right on the end, it'll fix that.

I know that the water pressure on this side of town wasn't that great.

Yeah, so, you know, the problem is if we increase the pressure in the water tank and make it better for people uphill, it will make it crazy. Yeah. Yeah. So the delicacy is hard to manage with the gravity system, but will be easier to manage with the pump system and will increase our capacity for developments and things like that as well. Because right now we're right on the edge of our capacity for our system. And if we add a lot more taps, it's going to really stretch our system very thin, but the pressurization will give us a greater capacity for things like development. So the gateway in particular, is really in need of some substantial development. It's pretty bad looking down there. There's a lot of vacant spaces. There's a lot of underutilized spaces. There's a couple spaces that, you know, are like the crazy worst, which is violating my love code, you know, with their trash piles and things like that. So we as a town are our comprehensive plan is in place right now, and we have a master plan, are seeking development down in that area. So we need better water pressure for that.

Is the water tank up on 7th or 2nd Street still in use?

Yes. That's a storage tank, though, I think. Right. I don't think that was a pressure.

Right.

I don't think. Don't quote me on that.

Actually, no.

It's still in use.

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Anything else on this comprehensive funding?

Nope.

Can you give everybody a brief synopsis on what they went over on that meeting we had last week?

Yeah. So we had a boarding permission training that Morgan and Jake both attended. We did not record it, but you all have the packet slides that I provided to you.

It was a really great meeting, by the way. Wish I would have been there.

Um, they, they talked about some basic like ethics and, uh, code of conduct for commissioners. We talked a lot about, um, conflicts of interest, um, was working a little bit with the beginning of this. So rules and responsibilities, a lot of stuff that, um, Most of you have attended a training with Jerry. So it's a refresher on some of that stuff.

So he went a lot more in depth, though, than Jerry ever did. And I've sat through Jerry's stuff a few times. He was very informative and he answered a lot of great questions. His information is in the back, too.

Todd, Todd Leopold is great. He also, I think, addresses the political reality of your position you know jerry really gets into the legality of things like the this is legal this is not legal todd leopold in this presentation addressed more of the like like can you do it technically yes should you do it because it looks bad no you know so there's a difference there um and you know just reminding a The commission about the quasi judicial nature of this board ex parte contact, which is when applicants might try to come talk to you about something that you're going to review at the meeting, which you should not be doing. Same thing with fellow board members like you shouldn't be discussing applications outside of this space. So because this. the public record that's why the ex parte contact is not allowed because all conversations about it should be held on the public record so um conflicts of interest you know jerry defines conflict of interest as does this um do you have a conflict because this might impact your you or someone in your household financially yeah yes which is a pretty cut and dry and definition, Todd Leopold expands that a little bit. If they're your really close friends, you might want to consider stepping back from that because of public perception. Now, we live in a very, very small town. We know pretty much everyone that comes and sits in front of us. So that's a fine line to walk. And sometimes you do have to just say like, well, this doesn't impact me financially. But if you fear that it might be something that people are not happy with you about, then you can step back from it.

Can I interject for a second? If you ever, you know, like if you have a question and you're not sure, just ask the town or the town attorney, but go to the town first. It's just they can, if there is a conflict of interest, they'll be able to decide. And if they don't know, they'll contact the attorney. And at that point, the attorney will say yes or no.

So, you know, we've had instances where, like, contractors have applicants in front of them that was on a project that they were working on and then maybe stepped off for some reason and said, It's, you know, maybe there's bad blood, maybe they were really good friends, I don't know, but there's gray areas for sure. So there are some instances where we would encourage you to recuse yourself, even if you don't legally have to. Yeah, so for the most part, if you have questions, it's always safe to ask staff. It's not always safe to ask each other or an applicant, basically never, so. unless it's here. So there's some scenarios that you can go through that address some of these scenarios, like situations that you might run into that can help navigate that. It goes through the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act. As the government, we are protected from a lot of things because can you imagine how many lawsuits would happen if people could sue us for everything? It would be literally impossible to govern. Um, so yeah, it goes through like what you are immune from and also what you are liable for. So like you as commission members, we, the town collectively, you guys can get us in trouble by saying the wrong thing, doing the wrong thing. So we encourage you to be professional with people and remember a lot of those rules, um, from like basic HR stuff, you know, you can't do it at work. we should consider this sort of the same space. So it goes through some tools for meetings and how to conduct yourself in a meeting, how to deal with maybe board members who talk all the time and advises the chair on how to manage soliciting opinions from people who maybe don't naturally speak up to make sure that everybody's voice is heard. And to be respectful, you know, sometimes you might disagree with people in these meetings and that's perfectly okay to have discussions, but to keep it respectful between you and your colleagues, all of you are volunteers, you know, everyone is here because they care about the town. So it's important to treat each other with respect. So.

I encourage all to go sit through a board of select and medium just once and see how that board is run and see how they interact with each other. It, you'll learn a lot. I'm serious. It'll help you with this portal. Just the learning process. Because they're just, everybody here is a lot newer. They've been doing it a lot longer and you'll pick up a lot of things from them. How often do they have their meetings? Twice a month. First or second or fourth Tuesday of the month. Second. And you don't have to sit through the whole meeting. You can go sit in there for an hour and just watch what they're doing. Where do they have them?

Here. Yeah, so we have one next Tuesday.

It's good for you just to come in and learn. You can see what the town's doing, too. And you can also watch it online.

Oh.

Yeah, there's a webinar. I'm sure Kasia will probably send it to you.

I can. You also, you know, it might be particularly interesting for you to watch the next one because the first reading for the ordinance changed for the recreational rentals for the gateway, which you guys just, you are making your recommendation to the board right now. So that would be on the next agenda. So you can attend and see their discussion about it. I don't expect it will be a particularly long one, but you know, it's interesting to see for sure. Okay. Robert's Rules of Order, those are a long-held, long-established conducts rules, basically, for meeting. We largely don't follow Robert's Rules of Order. We do to an extent, but they're very, very, very strict about, like, who is allowed to talk, when you're allowed to talk. If you watch like congressional hearings, they're using Robert's rules of order, you know, so they'll say things like, I see my time. So you have like a fixed amount of time and you're only allowed to say things. So we're much more casual on Georgetown. We're not like enforcing these rules really heavily, but we do encourage you to like know them, you know? And especially for motions and voting. And then also sometimes the public will come in and talk to us. And again, it's very casual. We typically allow members of the public to participate in the discussion to an extent. But sometimes you have to be like, listen, you're not on the board. I'm sorry. You're part of the audience. You need to sit quietly while the board discusses this, which most people don't ever come to this commission, but like business promotion commission has a lot of attendance usually.

Really?

Yeah. And those business owners have things to say about what the commission is doing. And so sometimes it's like, you know, we want you to participate when it's appropriate, but then you need to stop and let us talk. And so otherwise the discussion just keeps going further. And that's also, you know, Jake's job as the chair to like, if the discussion is continuing and it's, it's done, you know, or everyone's made their point and it's getting repetitive. Jake can be like, okay, like, does anyone have any new points or the discussion is finished or whatever and keep the conversation moving, you know?

Or if it's going off topic.

Or if it's going off topic, yeah. You know, I had a designer group commission the other day where we were really stuck on like one topic for a very long time and we needed to like move on from it. But we have a new chair on that commission as well.

He's the new chair?

Bob Hamilton. Oh, really? We have co-chairs in the DRC. It's not the chair and vice chair like we do some commissions. And then you guys don't have a vice chair. You just have a chair.

Cindy's still on?

Yes. Cindy hasn't been the chair for as long as I've been there. Joan Eaton was the chair for like 23 years, which is crazy. And then she was co-chair with Mark Reynolds, who's still the co-chair, but Bob Hamilton has taken over for Joan. So, but anyway, you know, he could have moved that conversation on a lot sooner. Decision-making, hurdles and mistakes, social media. Oh, also like, Morgan, I should send this to you. All of you have copies of the Code of Conduct the Board of Selectmen passed last year as well. So that addresses some public interaction with social media and things like that as well. So that's separate from this presentation, but it is an adopted Code of Conduct for all boards and commissions that the Board of Selectmen passed last year. So Morgan, I will send that to you.

Thank you. Where's that Code of Conduct? I mean, I'm not on social media anymore, so.

I can be not to you again as well, but you should have it too.

Yeah, I think it was sent last year. I have like a folder in my email that I follow the planning commission stuff in.

Yeah, that was like October, November of last year. So it's been a while since we went over it.

Oh, wait, I remember getting that.

Yeah. Yeah, and then final thoughts, you know, do not, you don't need to know everything. Use the resources available. Take part in trainings and we offer them. Governing is complicated. Take your time to make good decisions. Ask a lot of questions. know come to staff if you need something and you know there there are lots of opportunities for you guys to like really sit with things you know so if you feel uncomfortable or you feel unsure like ask read talk you know even here even if you think it's a stupid question someone probably has the same question so this is especially your commission, land use is complicated. It's not an easy thing to just walk into and have a pretty good idea of unless you do land use in some capacity, which most people do not. Yes, and then there's a board commission health assessment tool that I'm not sure we're going to be engaging with entirely, but HAB-Masyn Moyer- jake if you want to I don't know Dennis might have everybody do it i'm not sure yet so.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- We totally have a full board again and we've we've gone through a few meetings yeah.

HAB-Masyn Moyer- Do I have a motion to.

accept the resignations of Shane Henry and Kathy Nutt? Somebody just has to make a motion. Yeah, I motion to accept the resignations of Shane Henry and Kathy Nutt. Do you have a second? I second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Do we have anything else? We had not accepted the resignation

Yeah, it's funny because at the last board selection meeting, who did resign?

Somebody resigned from the board of selection?

No, no, no. Parks. There was a crowd of people who resigned from the Parks Commission.

Oh, I heard about that.

And they were like, can we not? And Jerry was like, You know, our commissioners are not an indentured servitude. Like, the acceptance is purely ceremonial. Once they resign, they resign. It's put her off, you know. I can't stop it.

I did tell Kasia, I was like, can we make change today?

I'm just like going to his house for eye-catching. Right?

Come on, come on with me. Well, if we don't have anything else, somebody wants to make a motion to adjourn the meeting. A motion to adjourn the meeting. Second. All in favor?