Council - Regular Meeting

to order the city of Glenwood Springs the regular city council meeting. Good evening everyone. It is May 7th uh 2026 and Ryan would you please take a roll call. Mayor Dame here, Mayor Prom Zalinski, Councelor Townsley, Councelor Schmall, Councelor Wymer, Councelor Shakar, Councelor Smith, we have a quorum.

Thank you very much Ryan. Um, going down the agenda. First up, uh, changes to the agenda. Anybody have a change that they want to mention? No changes. Then we have, uh, uh, conflict of interests. Any conflict of interest from counselors tonight with items on the agenda? Also see none. Then we'll get into the uh, citizens appearing before council and council response if necessary for items that are not on the agenda. So, anybody that's here to voice their grievances or praises step up. Okay, we'll see none. We'll close the public portion of that and we'll get into council announcements. Any council announcements? Oh, I don't have Let's see. What do I need to do? There you go. Councelor Tanley, please.

Uh, a couple quick things from parks and recck. One of them's kind of a ways out, but I'll just throw it out there. The art center is going to have an open house in August 15th. They've totally revamped the building, put a ton of new courses in there. Probably be a good thing to see. I did tweak a tour of the building and it's really nicely really nicely redone. Uh, North Landing uh kickoff is Thursday, next Thursday the 14th from 4:30 to 5:15. Hopefully the bathrooms won't have been vandalized by then. uh GoPro. Everybody's familiar with the GoPro games in in uh Vale and Havon. They are running short on water for the kayaking events and the white water events. So, they're going to probably try to move those over here assuming we have enough water.

So, June 5th and June 6th, we'll have a bunch of GoPro game stuff going on down at the at the Whitewater Park. So, it'll be fun to get people down for that. Uh the pickle ball people that come around all the time, they now have pickle ball for Tuesday and Thursday nights on the ice rink. Uh the ice rink also has skateboarding and roller derby. I think we should put a team together. Uh Rocky Mountain Youth Corps is going to be doing uh fire mitigation work above Oasis Creek this year, much like they did on above the Lynwood Cemetery, and you'll start seeing tents going up at the rec center. So don't think that it's a new camping project, but it's the Rocky Muse Conservation.

Excellent. Thank you, Mayor Proen Solinsky, please. Uh just a reminder that there is a um fishing closure that goes through the end of I think it's the end of May. Um there's kind of some different but it's it's for their spawning and we don't want to stress our fish out anymore than they already will be with the drought and the other things. And so this includes not just fishing, but also maybe don't bring your dog down there and have them jumping around in the pools in the eddies. Um, and just try and protect our fishing. Okay. Thank you. And councelor Smith.

Thank you. The transportation commission met last week on their regular monthly meeting. Lots going on, but two primary projects they're focusing on. one getting ready for the city councils and the city staff's 20 fiscal year 2027 budget process. Um this is kind of procedurally significant because the other big thing that they're working on is updating the long range transportation plan which is at its mid mid point in its 20-y year life and most of the things have been done. So, we're going to start working on that into the fall, but meanwhile bring more priority projects in consultation with staff in time for budget process. Uh, they're also working on monitoring the transportation management organization project that is being funded by combination of city money and clean energy economy for the region money and state money. um that kind of feasibility and design work is going to be has a contract that continues till next April. Uh there's some talk about the TMO organization coming back to city council for some supplemental money in the 2027 budget. Personally, I think it's more likely that they're going to have something to sell if they wait till after the April. That's all all happening and both of those may have some some features for the um budgeting process. Um council Sinsky may may want to mention this separately but um RAFA the Roy for transportation authority board is having its big annual strategic planning retreat next week. Um, and so any ideas, any questions, any input anybody has, uh, would be useful for that. Uh, the Colorado Mountain College Center for

Civics with a big grant that they have from a couple of sources doing major outreach and public events about civic engagement and civic understanding, constitutional literacy, uh, continues with several events, including one on May 20th in Carbondale at 6, uh, that really digs into the constitution and how it works. kind of a nice grounding. Uh they also in sent out their continuing education catalog that came out recently. In there is a string of three classes that I think are going to be very enlightening in terms of understanding government process particularly a three session class series of classes that begin in June um as part of that schedule but you can get that in this class in this flyer that came in everybody's mailbox or at coloradomt.edu. Thanks. Thank you. Any other announcements? No. Okay. Excellent. We'll move to the consent agenda for tonight. And in the consent agenda tonight, we have four items. We have the April 16, 2026 council minutes. We have the Historic Preservation Commission reappointments. We have the Tourism Management Board appointment and the Planning and Zoning Commission appointment. And with that, I'm entertaining a motion to move on the consent agenda. Mayor Prom Solinski, please.

I move to approve the consent agenda with the four items listed. Thank you. And I need a second. Council Shaker. Second. And a second. Any discussion on the consent agenda? See none, I'll call for the question.

It's unanimous. It passes. Thank you very much. Any comments? Mayor Proam Silinski, please. Oh, let's try that. That's right. I just would like to take a moment and thank our um reappointment. Uh we have three different boards and commissions that have members. Um we have reappointed Kyle Jones to the planning and zoning commission. We have reappointed Carolyn Superly, Marian Acriman, uh James Larson, and Eric Hand to the Historic Preservation Commission. and we have a new appointment to the tourism management board and that is Monroe Wilcox. I appreciate you all and your willingness to serve our community.

Okay, thank you very much. Just a quick point of clarification, Kyle Jones was actually moved from an alternate to a permanent position. So,

um, excellent though. He's Thank you all for joining our commissions. Uh, with that, we'll get into the proclamation designating May as a historic preservation month. and we're going to do items seven and eight kind of together. uh eight would be uh officially recognized structures of merit and preservation awards. But we'll start with the proclamation and and for that I'd like to call up our chairperson of the historic preservation commission which is Carolyn simple and our staff liaison to that commission which is Emry Ellson. So here we go. A proclamation for Historic Preservation Month, May 2026. Whereas the National Trust for Historic Preservation established May as Historic Preservation Month in 1973 as a way to promote historic places for the purpose of installing community pride and showing the social and economic benefits of historic preservation. And whereas historic preservation month can instill awareness of the local historically significant buildings and landmarks to the residents of Glenwood Springs. And whereas it is important to celebrate the role of history in our lives and the contributions made by dedicated individuals in helping to preserve the tangible aspects of the heritage that has shaped our community. And whereas the Glennwood Springs community continues to demonstrate its commitment through historic surveys, the nomination of cultural resources as local landmarks, the protection of its resources, both built and natural, and the recognition, rehabilitation, and restoration of historic properties. Now therefore, I, Marco Dame, mayor of the city of Glenwood Springs, to hereby proclaim May 2026, as National Preservation Month, and call upon the

city of Glenwood Springs to join their fellow citizens across the country in recognizing and participating in this special observance. In witness whereof, I have here to set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Glenwood Springs, Colorado, to be affixed the seventh day of May in the year 2026. and I'll sign this in a second. Congratulations for the history. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Go. We'll do this. Official. It is official. Excellent. And here we're moving on to the Let me see if I got the right one because I think only one party is here tonight. Is it Colorado Avenue? Colorado Avenue and 829. Okay. So before we get into the structural merits would please you or Emry explain what a structural merit is.

Uh so structures of merits are buildings in Gunwood Springs that exhibit architectural and historic signific significance. So in light of preservation this month we just wanted to highlight a couple different structures in town. Uh 108 Colorado Avenue and then also 829 Pitkin Avenue. So I think the owners are in attendance and you want to come up and receive your award. Okay. So, is is 829 Pitkin Avenue here? Yes. Okay. Oh, you guys are excellent. Come on up. Go. Over this way. Yeah. Come on. Straight this way. Yes. There. You're just about here.

There you go. Fantastic. This is awesome. So, we'll have This is the historic preservation award. This 7th day of May, 2026, the Glenwood Springs Historic Preservation Commission recognizes 829 Pitkin Avenue as a structure of merit. Congratulations. You have a beautiful home. Listen to this.

Massage studio. My massage studio. Okay. Little plug for the massage studio at 829 Pitkin. Excellent. Thank you so much. You back. Okay, my bad. Great. Okay, thank you. And then the next one is uh 10 or 108 Colorado Avenue, which is the Wallers. I think both of them are here. The pink pallet Pino Waller,

please come up. Thank you for being here tonight. Same goes to you. Historic Preservation Award. This 7th day of May, 2026, the Glenwood Springs Historic Preservation Commission recognizes 108 Colorado Avenue as a structure of merit. Thank you so much what you have done with the place. Thanks for being part of our community. Thank you so much. There you go.

So, thank you all for coming up and thank you all for being here. There we go. Okay, that was seven and eight on tonight's agenda. Uh with the conclusion of those items, we're moving into actions and or presentations. And item nine on the agenda is the Rudey Water and Power Authority, also known as Robapa, uh presentation on invasive species. Paula,

oh, Paula and April, sorry, I didn't see you there. Thank you for being here. Um, hi, my name is Paula Steph. I've known many of you. Uh, thank you for serving. I am the new discussion. I'm the new executive director for Rude Eye Water and Power Authority and we are in transition is I'm the outgoing executive director of the Rude Eye Water and Power Authority. So I am here to make sure that we have a smooth transition and also just to introduce you to Paula and to answer any um questions that go back into the history about Rudy Water and Power Authority Rawa that you may have. So I handing over a hat literally in front of us.

Okay. Um so April stepped down at the end of the year but stepped down officially but she's been working with me for the last six months. So, she's not really stepped down and I truly appreciate water year to try to step out of water. So, there's a lot going on, but I'll let you do that and I'll stand up.

Great. Thank you. So, um I just wanted to give a quick update where we are this year and what our goals are. our Rudy Water and Power Authority um came together back in 1981. Um when uh the Bureau of Reclamation um uh was going to allow a hydro plant up at the dam, uh the town of Aspen and Picking County decided to pull together different stakeholders in the valley um to see if they could um develop that hydro plant because they would have pri first what do you call it? first priority as far as making that move towards having something like that. Um they found out eventually that it's just Aspen and Pitkin County um that are controlling um the actual hydropower plant and stuff, but the collaborative came together and we've been working together since then um with representation from all our different towns and Eagle and Pitkin County on water issues in this uh watershed all the way from Independence Pack till it hits the Colorado River. Um there are uh a number of things that have happened over the past years but it always kind of comes back to quad quality and quantity of water uh and what is happening with our uh in the more recent years what's happening with aquatic movement species. I know that you guys have had a number of presentations on this. I know that you're aware that we had a dismal snow pack. Um, and there are all sorts of things that people are doing to mitigate that impact uh in our uh water supplies, for irrigation, for recreations, and it's going to take a lot of work from all of us. Today, this is why I'm stuttering a bit. Um, we had an eight hour meeting, roughly eight hours up in Carbondale with Roaring Fork stakeholders, people from the water treatment plants, including Matt Langghor, uh, Warren Hayes, people from towns, um, our board of representatives

that were able to make it, uh, people from nonprofits like Rory Fort Conservancy, Picking County Healthy Rivers was there. So, we all kind of went through some major topics that we are helping to um, lead or being part of. um that outreach and in particular um what we can do as far as water conservation this year and how we get that message to our citizens and get them to embrace it. Um many people know we had a miserable snow year. Not 100% but many people know that and they know that as a result we may have already seen the peak of the roaring fork in March. Hopefully we get another double dip in there or double peak in there. Um, our water flow going through the Colorado River is down quite a bit already and they're trying to figure out how to divide up that water and sustain the Grand Valley irrigators without them pulling more water from our system that we need in our municipalities. Um, the uh ANS program that Ruapa subsidizes up at Rudey Reservoir is to inspect the boats up there. So, as you have seen in previous presentations because I've been here, um the aquatic nuisance species we're concerned about are zebra muscles and the New Zealand mud snails. And in the presentation today from CPW, every time I go to one of their meetings, they've discovered more places that they're seeing these muscles. Uh and we need to be in the forefront all of us throughout the watershed on how do we mitigate or slow down that spread before it starts infesting our municipal infrastructure or our irrigation and watering that we need for um both raw water irrigating in our towns and for our um farm community farm community. Um, part of that, I'm going to have April speak to this. Um back in 2018 in

previous years when we had this stat of water uh situations we went to some of the folks and Colorado River District went to folks with uh contracted water in Rudey Reservoir and um we've requested that the river district right now is requesting that water to help mitigate some of the um demand from the Grand Valley water irrigators and make sure our municipalities studies are okay, but I'm also working with them on what we might need in the roaring fort. Um, and in particular, when this done was done in the past year, it was to cool the roaring fort because of our uh fish populations.

So, I'm going to let April speak to it more. I'm chattering on and running on some

No, you're fine. You're doing great. Um so as Paula mentioned, one of the interesting um roles that Rawa plays in this regional position in the wershed is in advocating for how releases um how and when releases happen out of Rudey Reservoir. All the water in the in the reservoir is contracted so held by contracts and water rights holders. Glennwood Springs has water in Rudey Reservoir and those contracted um those contractes can call for the water whenever they need it. Um what became interesting in these dry years like 2018 and 2021 and 2022 was that we still had a lot of water in Rudy um even though we were in a drought. Um, and so we began to think about how could we more creatively use put that water to use to solve some of the drought problems that we were having. And so like she was mentioning, the Colorado River District in partnership with RWAPA asked some of the contract water rights holders if they would be willing and able to release some of the water to help improve the conditions that we were seeing in the Roaring Fork. Um I think commissioner or counselor, sorry, Gazalinsky was just mentioning that um there's a fishing closure right now. When the water when the water temperatures heat up and the air um temperatures are hot as well, we see fishing closures not just in the Roaring Fork and the Colorado River, but across the state, one of the interesting things that happens in the Roaring Fork is that those fishing closures tend to begin in the upper Colorado River and in the Eagle River before they come to the Roaring Fork. And so in addition to us experiencing the high temperatures and our fishing population being stressed simply by temperatures, they also get stressed by um pressure because all of the anglers that are used to fishing on the Colorado or Eagle are now moving into the Roaring Fork because it's the

last stretch of river that's still open. And so we have stress from angling um and and and our guides get a little stressed and then also the fish are stressed from the temperatures. So, one of the creative things that we did was release water out of Root Eye Reservoir for a designated time to try to increase the water um volume and decrease the temperatures in the in the river so that we could keep it cooler and keep that fishing closure um appropriate for a couple of weeks longer, which helps our economies because it's helping our guiding services stay open for longer and also helps our environment. And so that's kind of an example of a role that Rwapa plays and it's also an example of what we might expect to have happen this year. We don't know for certain where everything's going to go. Root Eey Reservoir is not going to fill. We know that everybody is going to be short on water. It might be Grand Valley a producers. It might be downstream municipal water providers. It might be both. Um it might be that we need to adjust for temperatures in the Roaring Fork. And so we're just trying to preface this for you of that there may be conversations to come about how do we creatively use your water like we have before in conjunction with lots of other contract water rights holders of Rudey water. Um so I'm happy to answer any questions but that's not an ask for today. It's just more of a preface of like this is what this is kind of what we have to deal with um and the way that Rowapa serves you all.

Excellent. Thank you. And the second part of what we're doing is looking at a water conservation messaging as I mentioned earlier and I've been working with um different towns on what their messaging is and we're hoping to coordinate it so it um works well together and doesn't step on toes but at the same time make sure the whole valley kind of understands um what we're dealing with this. So questions I tried to keep it to five minutes. You did fantast and a half. Okay. So, thank you for the information. It's definitely an interesting year this year and uh

Oh, there we go. Uh but thanks for all the for all the info you guys bring to us. Uh, any questions from council to the RWAPA ladies? And I I don't know if Paula mentioned, but um, Commissioner Zalinski, Commissioner Councelor Zalinski is your representative on the Rawa board, right? Newly chosen. Yes. Excellent. Volunteered. Excellent. Well, oh, there we go. One question. Chancellor Schmall, please. Is there a point at when the water level in Rudy prohibits boating? There is. Yeah. Yeah. Well, go ahead. Okay. Yeah. He's the expert.

Yes, there is. There's a um the yacht club in the marina. Um it reaches the elevation for them sooner than it does for motorized vehicles, but it's only because of their um marina. Their docks are coming up out of the water. And then there is a point where the boat ramp um turns from pavement to mud and that prohibits motorized vehicles from being able to launch. Um and so that's it's not a legal issue. It's more of just a physical issue of like the their track their um trailers get stuck in the mud if they try to launch at that level.

And how does that relate to where you expect the reservoir to get this year? I believe that elevation is somewhere below 60,000 acre feet and Rudy holds 102,000 acre feet when it's full. We're not going to get to 102,000 acre feet this year. We're already above 60 well above 60,000 acre feet and we usually only get to that level in late late October. It's possible we'll get we'll draw down Rud eye to that level in September and so we'll be watching that but I believe the water levels are anticipated to get to above 80,000 acre feet by the 4th of July which is when they stop billing and start releasing.

So there basically it'll be boating all season. There should be boating at least until September but the season for boers goes until the end of October. So it may be an early season. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay, we'll see none. Anybody from the public have any questions to the Rudey water supply? Okay, we'll see none. Well, thank you for being here and and please come back with an update once you know more what's going on around us in there. Excellent. Thank you. Thanks, guys.

Okay, item 10, Caven Springs mobile home park funding request. And I don't know who's Oh, there's Watkins. He's going to kick it off for us. Good evening, council. I'm going to get my PowerPoint going.

Excellent. Okay. Um, so the item before you all tonight is a funding request for the preservation of a mobile home park called Cavern Springs. Uh, what I'm going to do, I'm not going to talk too long tonight, but I'm going to give you some background on this mobile home park, what the request is, some information about the the request, uh, and about the financial picture uh, that the workforce housing fund is in. Uh, and then we do have some other folks um, from the park who would like to speak tonight. So, Cavern Springs uh, is in unincorporated Garfield County. It's just a little bit outside city limits um to our south. Um it is there are 98 homes and where about 300 people uh including 60 children live. Like most mobile home parks, um the residents there uh own their homes but not the land underneath it. So they pay monthly lot rent and that that's everybody that pays monthly lot rent and that's in perpetuity. The average household income there is about $74,000. Uh and based on our estimates using our cell phone data, about 36% of those residents work in Glennwood. Um it is zoned commercial limited in the county. Uh which means that there are some some retail and office sort of uses by right that they can do. Um and also multif family is allowed there if if the park ever were to redevelop. This is where it is if you can see. Um it's pretty near Thunder River near the Habitat Restore. So, um, what the request is is to help, uh, fund this park so that the residents can buy it and convert it into what's

called resident ownership. That means that the residents jointly in the form of a cooperative would own the land underneath the park, uh, which would allow them to control the future of the park, control the lot rents. They would be in charge of all maintenance in the future. And so as the owners of the o of the land underneath them as well as the residents, uh that obviously gives them an incentive to have the lot brands be as low as possible while still letting them um raising enough money to to do all the maintenance and to have healthy reserves. Uh but that is the method for preserving affordability in the park. And so that's why this residentowned cooperative or or rock model um has gotten a lot of notoriety recently and we've seen some examples in the roaring Fort Valley uh in Glennwood of mobile home parks turning into rocks in mobile in in Glennwood specifically. We have the what used to be called the mountain mobile home parks now the Glen Valley Cooperative that happens last year. So, there's a few players that I want to introduce. Um, and what the first is Mountain Collective, which is the official name of the resident organization, the residents of the park. I think we have some uh representatives here tonight. Also, Mountain Voices Project is a nonprofit that we have in our our valley um that are assisting the residents to organize and assisting them to raise funds for this this effort. Also, Thistle Rock um you might hear some references to. They are a nonprofit based in the Front Range. They are kind of a technical assistance provider for these uh folks who are trying to u convert their parks into rocks. Uh as you can imagine it's a very complicated process and it doesn't end with them buying the parks. It goes a lot farther farther than that. Um and they help them set up the co-op co-op so that they're successful in the future that they do the right things like have funds in reserve and um have a an effective

governance structure in the co-op. Uh and then also we have the mess m west west mountain regional housing coalition or what I'll just call the regional housing coalition um which is playing an important role to help coordinate the response and support from local governments like us uh as well as private donors to assist the residents in raising the funds that they need. Funding request is a forgivable loan of $500,000. In exchange for that uh that funding request, um the plan would be to have an affordability covenant, which is similar to what we've done with other mobile home parks in Glenwood and the two that occurred up Valley. Um that would preserve it for members of the local workforce and preserve it for occupancy by um owners of the the mobile homes. If this rock effort isn't successful, the funds that that you if you decide to commit any funds to it, it would be deobligated and not spent. So, any decision that you make tonight, um we're not writing a check tomorrow. Uh it's just um putting our our our name on the list of of people who will make this possible. Um and if it doesn't work out, we won't lose anything uh any money anyway. uh if this effort isn't successful, we believe that there is a corporate investor who is ready waiting in the wings to uh to make that offer of $23 million. Um so other local government commitments and there is some new information here. City of Aspen has pledged $2 million, Snow Mass Village $1 million, Carbonddale 500,000 and Picking County uh 1.5 million. So, this money, if you all choose to commit anything, would come from the workforce housing fund. And um we do have the money for it is the the the short story. Uh right now, with all the the current expenditures that we have, we're projected to have about 900,000 in the bank at the end of the year. Um so, if the full requests were honored, we

would still have a healthy amount around 400,000 left. As a reminder, the workforce housing fund can only be used for affordable housing projects, partnerships, and that sort of thing. Um, so there's no um there's no implication to our roads or any of our other basic services by spending this money.

Um, the funding request, if you average if you take the average of 98 homes and the $500,000 from us requested, that comes about to about 5 $5,100 per home. Um, and if there are any questions about workforce housing funding spent outside city limits, um, we can talk about this in more detail, but it is allowed with the the proper findings that you all might make. Uh, so if we talk about the list of reasons why and and why not to do this, um, the list of reasons why not, this park is, as I've mentioned, outside city limits. So these these residents are not uh, strictly speaking residents of Glenwood Springs. Um it would also limit future and unknown funding requests. Uh on the list of things to to think about um for support of this though is that it would help Glenwood workers. Um 36% of those workers we think are are work in Glenwood or in the 81601 zip code. Uh this is a preservation effort also and so preservation avoid would help avoid additional uh pressure on Glenwood's housing market, our own housing market. uh and it would avoid creating additional traffic in and through Glennwood because if you think about what might happen in the worst case scenario where there's lots of displacement where those folks going to go many of them are going to come to Glenwood and down valley of us and that means they'll be traveling through Glennwood to get to their places of employment most likely. Um and from that same reasoning uh this would avoid creating more greenhouse gas emissions from that commuting using our roads. Um there would be expenditures, you know, people using the highway 82 for their commuting. It would keep children in our school district. Um um the park is in the uh Riverview and Glennwood Springs high school zones. Uh it would also avoid the possibility of our mobile homes going to either the city's landfill or the county's landfill. Those are obviously kind of high volume uh things that that can help

that can fill up our landfill. Um, and this is preserving affordability and it's development neutral. Development neutral meaning that we're not building anything new. This is just maintaining it as it is, keeping it affordable. Uh, this request was heard by workforce housing fund advisory board last month. Um, and they voted seven to zero to recommend the full funding request. Our long range plans don't speak uh specifically about mobile home parks in too many ways, but our comprehensive plan does have a goal that is to promote long r long-term sustainable and diverse economic development. Um so to the extent that having a you know a workforce that can live near Glenwood um is part of economic development, this does help support that. Our strategic housing plan uh does list as a goal to prioritize the preservation of mobile home parks. That's very specific. And in uh the workforce housing fund advisory board's implementation plan um one of the strategies is to establish property acquisition pilot program to facilitate the purchase of existing properties. Um and it does say i.e. mobile home parks for affordable housing preservation. So if you all choose to approve um we do recommend you include these findings. These are the same that are in your packet. These are tied uh pretty specifically to the ballot language and the enabling ordinance. Um and I have a a motion that you could think about if you choose to approve. Um if you choose to deny the request, I have another motion here that you can look at for guidance, too. So, that's all I have for you all. Um I think we can maybe hold questions until after the applicant presentation or however you'd like to do it, Mr. Mayor. Well, I think let's do a quick round of questions to staff just to just to um get that out of the way

if there is any. And if not, we'll uh councelor Small and then we'll we'll invite the applicant up. Watkins, I presume the 36% workers in Glenwood Springs is from Placer AI information. Yes, sir. Can you explain to me how that works? How do how does it how do you know a cell phone is coming to work?

Yeah, it's a great question. Um, well, first you have to know who you have to know who lives in Cavern Springs. So, it's kind of a two-step. Identify who lives in Cavern Springs. Uh, and then figure out where that person who lives there is going and whether they're going to work or going on an errand or dropping the kids off or what have you. Uh so to determine this anonymized cell phone person uh whether they live there or not, we look at a a snapshot um or not a snapshot but a longer look 30 to 45 days whether that person is spending time in this this geographical area between like midnight and 4:00 a.m. Um thinking that that's kind of a good indicator of whether they they live there or not. And so then once you have this these anonym anonymous people um you know where they could where they go after that. And so they also took a long-term look um about when they where they are in the city. Um and so that's over a period I think of also 30 to 45 days and it's spending between three and eight hours. So it's not capturing people who are in town for 15 minutes. It's capturing people for for longer periods of time and making the assumption that when that's a repeated pattern that they're coming to work

maybe part-time, maybe full-time, maybe doing errands. Uh, possibly, but you know, three hours doing errands. I guess that I guess that could happen. Um, but it would be unlikely that they'd be doing that for days in a row, you know. Oh, it's consecutive workday type. Yes. Yes. Uh, I got you. Thank you. And is uh the organization that was helping the Mountain Mobile Park, are they on board with this yet? Yes, sir. Thistle Rock is the name. And Thistle Rock. Yeah, they are. They are working with the the residents.

They're working with them. Have they signed them up? Are they on Are they all the way committed? They are. um they have committed uh to lending some some money to them also. Um so that's part of their capital stack for this. They are they are committed to the Thank you. Thank you. Mayor Prom Sinsky, please. Can you explain to me why this is structured as a forgivable loan rather than a grant?

It's it's really so that we can um have a way to know that we're not that that the money that we're spending will be spent in the way we want it to. So, you know, if we just gave them this money, the residents could theoretically turn around and sell the park and then make a profit themselves. So, we don't want that to happen. Um, so that's the string we tie to it with the affordability covenant and it's it's grant as long as they meet those requirements. Got it. And then, so then what are the terms of that loan? I'm assuming there's a like an expiration date on it when it becomes forgiven.

Um, and I don't think all those details are established yet. Um the plan is to have it be a lot like what we did um up Valley. If you all remember those two mobile home parks that we um we committed $100,000 to and they were successful in the end. Um so some of the terms of those were that the mobile homes have to be occupied by the owner so they they wouldn't be rented out. Um short-term rentals are are not allowed. um the term I I think it's a 99-year term of that affordability covenant and then there's some kind of um re-upping of the term after that that happens automatically. Excellent. Thank you. Council Towns,

just quick follow up on on counselor Small's question. Does that include kids that would be in school all day long, high school kids, regular kids? Is that pulled out of that 36% somehow or is that part of that? Um if the kids have phones then they would be included in it. Uh placer my understanding is that they have a a way of making some assumptions about children. Um understanding that not all kids have phones but that there are some kids and so um the assumption that there's some kids in there is kind of baked into that. So okay thank you council.

Well is there a precedent of us spending 2C money outside of city limits? No, there is not yet. Okay, any other questions at this point? Okay, we'll see none. Thank you. Thank you, Watkins. Would the applicant care to come forward? And um I think what we're going to start with is a video. We're not going to start with that. Okay. Okay. Okay. Please state your name for the record. My name is Maria Hudid Alvarez and I live in Cavern Springs. Thank you.

Um good afternoon mayor Dem and members of the city council. Uh thank you for your time and for your commitment for our community. Um I am here today like as a president of our community and also a leader of montine voices project called MVP. Um and I was not only a participant of the proposition to see uh campaign, I was one of the leader advocated for it. And today I am here living the reality of what that investment was mean to support. We are here with a clear opportunity for Glenwood Springs to invest in the preservation of the long-term affordable workforce housing. Um we are requesting what you hear $500,000 um forgiven loan from the 2C fund to help resident Cabernet Spring purchase our community and protect 90 homes for the workers who keep this running this city about what you hear 30 36% of these residents work here in Gleno the spring uh what they say in restaurant, construction, education, healthcare and also some of them there as a volunteer of the addressing food insecurity every Saturday here in the middle school attended at least uh 800 families for months. Um today those families are facing a real fear to know knowing if they will be able to remain in their homes. Last year our part was listed in Zeld um and we had seen what can happen next the rent increase and also is a displacement of families they are start doing that

some families um but our community did not stay still 96% of the residents vote in favor of um a resident ownership uh with the support and collaboration with Mont with MVP and housing coalition we uh are organized it and brought a lot of resources together and we are doing everything possible to be part of the solution. Glenwood the spring already made an important decision um when borders approved proposal to see and I invest in a workforce housing the funds are there um the purpose is clear and this request is directly aligned with that purpose this is no hand out this is an investment and a stability and workforce retention and in the future of this community this is a real family this is a real community. Um, and I respectfully ask for you both yes in this request. Um, and now I want to show you what Cavern Spring residents are doing for make this dream real through this video. There it is.

There you go.

Hello, council. Um, I'm Alex Dowey. I'm a Glenwood resident and I'm on the Workforce Housing Board. So, just wanted to say a few things. Thanks for giving me some time here. So, as as Watkins said, our board did unanimously vote to recommend this funding because of the alignment with our 2C mission statement and the implementation plan. And the return on investment is very strong. Uh, if you do the math with all 98 units, that's $5,100 a unit. If we look at that 36% estimate of workers in Glennwood Springs, that's more like 14,000 per unit. And as you know, our investments so far have ranged anywhere from 11,000 a unit up to about 48,000 a unit across the different projects that council has funded. So very much in line with those. Um all these numbers are much lower than new construction costs and this is also development neutral. But the the big opportunity we see is that we can preserve 98 units here that can be available for Glenwood employers now and in the future. And this is an existing housing that we can protect. Now, and Watkins mentioned some of the other benefits beyond the the workforce housing in terms of traffic and other things that that protecting this existing affordable housing can provide for us. Some of the things that make this different are that the residents have done a lot of the heavy lifting already, getting almost unanimous buyin from the residents, winning legal battles, building a regional coalition, and they're not asking us to to fund this alone. Uh there's other local governments that have already committed funding and overall this is part of a being a partner in a $ 24 million solution that they've already got in motion. So we feel that because we have room in our budget for this while still funding all of our existing commitments, we should fund it and that's what our recommendation is to council. It doesn't leave us with all a lot of money left over for the rest of the year, but we believe that this fund exists to take advantage of opportunities that come up

and invest in them and that's what we have in front of us today. So, thanks for your time and uh our recommendation from the board is is to fund the project. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for being here. Is there any other applicant? Yes, of course. Thank you. I'm the last one. Um, and if you'll pull up my slides because I have a slide that'll help show the stack. Name for the record, please.

Hi everyone. I'm April Long. I just switched hats. I am the executive director of the West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition, um, that Watkins mentioned as part of the group. Um, our coalition, uh, of which Glennwood Springs is a member. We are a new nonprofit in working in the space of of trying to address our affordable workforce housing issues with a regional lens. And we were formed by um the local governments including Glenwood Springs um in response to the growing housing crisis that we have. Um and our you know our um responsibility back to our local governments are to um bring the region together on sol workforce housing solutions that impact the entire region of which this is one of those that does. We were also um we also worked last year on the preservation of two mobile home parks further up valley than these. the one um called Aspen Bassalt and one called Mountain Valley in and near Basalt and into and near um Carbondale. And so I'm happy to talk about those efforts, but because of that work that the housing coalition did um last year, we were asked by Cavern Springs and the residents as well as our members to coordinate the effort um of the local governments and the community's response for this mobile home park as well. So, um, let's see. I just for reference, this is the membership in the West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition. And, um, we include all of those local governments as well as Colorado Mountain College and RAFTA. And then I'm just going to go really quickly through this because I believe it's what everyone has said. And I'm going to get down here to the end so you can look at this slide um, while I talk. So one of the things that we were asked to pulled pulled together by the local

governments to coordinate and facilitate the response because it is a regional impact and so we believe that no one um community should have to solve this problem alone or should be contributing to this problem alone because of the impact and so we recognize that no one's community could do it alone and so we're trying to coordinate this effort to bring everybody together. I think the other important part is that the other local governments that have already committed funds to this um are thinking about it in the same way that you all are. But it is uh been critical for them to pivot um from their current efforts and from their current funding um commitments because the loss of a hundred units sets us further back when we're thinking about how do we provide workforce housing to the tune that we know that we need to. Um and everyone especially um some organizations and employers up valley are building affordable housing as quickly as they can. If we were just to continue building while losing a hundred units, it would be um quite quite detrimental to our efforts. And I think that we are thinking as uh thinking of, you know, mobile home parks are what you hear called naturally occurring affordable housing because of they don't own the land underneath. there um um and the units can fit tighter onto these properties. Um but we really believe in work for or in affordable housing as as infrastructure. Workforce housing is part of our infrastructure of our community. Um it is very much essential to the way a community functions especially here. Um the retention of our workforce is critical to our employers. same way roads, bridges are um the scale of supplying workforce housing. Um the the funding needed to do that is is similar to the scale and and funding needs of other really expensive

infrastructure issues. Um and the loss of housing like the Cavern Springs Mobile Home Park. I think several of the speakers have already alluded to this. You know, the value that I see particularly for Glenwood Springs is that this housing is on the eastern side of Glenwood Glennwood Springs, southern side, I guess. Um, the next available affordable housing options for this for the members of this community would be west of Glenwood Springs, right further down I7, which impacts your traffic um issues. Um it also disrupts the employers of these um where these workers are employed and the loss to the school system could be quite critical. We heard in another presentation it's about $12,000 a student um in a declining enrollment uh or the RE2 RE1 school district has declining enrollment and so they're already facing some pretty tough decisions. if this community had to move further down valley and pull um res pull students out of schools that could be a significant loss for them as well. So just trying to point out um how it affects governments um which is what our role is. And so that housing coalition um was brought in last year and likewise this year to help the governments and the community understand what's at risk. Um, I think that what we heard of, um, Watkins talking about the zoning for this for this, uh, land, this parcel is commercial. So, uh, another buyer, a future buyer could scrape and replace all of these units. Um, it could be another mobile home park owner. like they've said, we've seen that these corporate buyers, these um private equity buyers do tend to increase um rents quite dramatically without reinvesting into the community. certainly those that are buying near

resort communities because um you know in an expensive resort area you can have um buyers such as second homeowners looking to buy a cheaper unit closer to the resort area that can't afford the millions and billions of dollars of homes in Aspen. And so that's what we identify what's at risk and then we can coordinate and facilitate the local government response. So, if we're all coming in this together, some organization has to hold all of these funds. Um, I think councelor Zalinsky, you were asking about the the stack and and the loan terms. We worked on this last year and so we assume kind of some similar situations here, but in exchange for governments providing this subsidy, it comes with a requirement that this be preserved as workforce housing, affordable workforce housing into in perpetuity. And so, we crafted the deed restriction. our organization would hold that deed restriction and be the one that ensures compliance with the deed restriction and reports back to you. You asked specifically about the loan and so we did structure it last year and I imagine we would do it this year as a forgivable loan. a couple of reasons. The residents and their CC Corp that they formed, it's a not for-profit CC Corp, so they can't accept money like this, so it has to go through another organization. And the second thing is to tie that um restrictive covenant to it. It's a term of the loan. And so we sat last year in fourth position in the lending stack. Um, the forgivable loan was essentially not repaid unless and until the property was ever sold to another private buyer. Um, even if it is sold to a private buyer, if it has the if we're successful in this, it has the deed restriction on it, it would have to have the terms of the deed restriction met, which was that it um must be resident occupied units.

Um, it must be a resident. Um, let's see. No short-term rentals. It can't be subdivided. Um, so the parcel must stay intact. Um, and then I'm trying to remember if there were any other Oh, and if when if and when a unit sold is sold, so not the parcel, but if a unit is sold, that the buyer of that unit must be um locally employed and make less than 200% AMI was the uh restrictions that we put on it last year. And we borrowed some of those some of that language from the mobile home park preservation um that Glennwood Springs did a little closed on a little bit sooner than we did. So, it's similar should look like similar language. Um, so back to the funding plan. And so, the purchase price is $23 million. Um, the acquisition price is estimated to be 24 million. So, one of the things that Thistle Rock does and we think is a really successful model is that they also require that there's already an operating reserve, a capital reserve, and that some capital improvements, necessary capital improvements are made. And so that $1 million extra is to is an estimate for what might be required to get all of that going. Um so with that as the goal, we are looking at um Rock Capital. That's the lender that comes with this Rock. So it's another benefit of having Thistle Rock involved. Rock Capital is a CD a national CDFI that specializes in mobile home park purchases. and they um we have them in as a range because they'll fill the gap um for whatever we're not able to raise um for the rest of these funds. And so they can do a loan of between six and 14 million. They're not going to lock in the rate yet, but they do provide below market rate loans. And so we're looking at something between a five and 7% rate. We have another um CDFI that is um in

Colorado that's going to participate in this purchase. That's impact development fund. And so they have committed 2 million to this purchase at a rate of 4%. We are working on a new idea of an $8 million loan package from we have some high netw worth interested philanthropic individuals who are trying to participate in um preservation efforts like this in different ways. And so if they're not able to donate, they may be interested in doing a loan. So, we're putting together a package for that. Um, that's looking like an $8 million, maybe four or five individuals that would contribute into that at something like 3%. And then you heard in the video and you heard from the other presenters that we're trying to do a we have a $6 million goal for local governments with a $2 million goal from donors, philanthropists, and possibly businesses. I can talk to that business piece just a little bit too in a minute. The whole point of the need for the subsidy is that these um residents cannot afford to pay back a loan um of $24 million. Their lot rents, the repayment would be too high. So, we're trying to keep the lot rent repayment to something that's affordable to them. They currently pay a little over $1,000 a month. Our goal is to keep it under $1,400 a month. And so everything on the left hand of the side of the screen is kind of the squishy stuff that we're trying to mesh together and we don't have solid answers on yet. On the right hand side of the screen we have the commitments that you saw earlier with half a million from Carbondale, two million from Aspen, a million from Snow Mass, and 1.5 million from Picking County. Um so we are up to 5 million in commitments from local governments. We're asking for $500,000 from Glenwood Springs tonight would bring us to 5.5 and our goal is 6 million. Um these

again are just commitments. None of the funds are moved or exchanged until unless and until we're able to close on the deal. Um so I think it's a beautiful partnership when you you actually all have to be in this together to create the success. Um we also have private donors coming in um into this package and so they have we have commitments up to of 160,000 so far from private donors and we're in conversations with lots of others. And then I put the time frame at the bottom. We need these commitments by the end of May because the residents only have until the beginning of June to make their offer and then the seller has to negotiate that offer in good faith. If the offer is accepted, they have 120 days to close. That's a really tight turnaround for due diligence, but that's when all of the due diligence would be done. So, we would get to the final um you know, this the all of the numbers would become harder during that process and our um organization would remain involved and represent all of this loan package essentially through that process.

I think that's everything.

Did you say you want to talk about the business aspect of it? the business aspect. Okay. So, we're trying a new idea. Last year when we did this, um we wanted to get employers and businesses involved and we heard regularly that they couldn't or didn't want to commit any funds in support if they couldn't ensure a return on their investment. And so, we didn't have time last year to really work with that idea, but we we um pitched this idea to thistle Rock and Rock Capital. And it's a little against their model because the whole model is rock resident owned communities. And so they don't want they don't like the idea of an owner being in there and renting to someone. However, they recognize that these um mobile home park issues, the the pressure that's facing them is getting more and more expensive and therefore they need to be more and more creative with how they bring in funding. And so we pitched the idea that could an employer that helps in the acquisition of this park then have the right to purchase one of the units when they come up for sale as long as they use that unit for their employee and their employee meets all of the guidelines that we set. And so they really like this creative idea. They think as long as it doesn't become an completely employeeowned part um then that is something that they would entertain. And so we are talking to some um employers tomorrow about this idea and trying to get some terms set up around it. But we think that that's a promising idea and we may have some employers that are able to contribute because of that.

Okay. Excellent. Now question. Now you're done. Okay. Awesome. Questions from council to the applicant. We'll start with uh councelor please. Thank you. Um, a as a member of the the housing coalition, how much has Glennwood Springs contributed to that organization offhand or what does our membership cost us

annually? Currently, it's $21,000 a year. So, just we've just been together for three years. there. And the uh uh the final the final estimate is subject to determining what upgrades are necessary. I presume because of a sale like this that the water and sewer system there is going to have to be certified or upgraded to current standards. Is that has any of that been included in your proforma yet?

It hasn't been included in the proforma yet and we don't have the information, but yes, it would be inspected. I'm not sure that they're required to be up to a certain standard, but it's certainly something that a lender in their underwriting is interested in. Okay, Council Townsley, quick question on the deed restriction you referenced in there. Is that a deed restriction? You know, you said owner occupied work workforce housing. That has nothing to do with Glenwood. That's workforce housing within the valley within the region. Yeah. So, from Aspen to Parachute. So, there's nothing that ties that back into Glenwood like the one we did last year.

Not like the one you did last year. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Councilor Shack. No more questions. No, I still got to do the public. Oh, you're not ready. Okay. Well, if I see no more questions, anybody from the public have any comments on this? Please step forward. Please state your name and whether you live in city limits or not. I think I also failed to mention that I live in Glennwood Springs. Hi, my name's um Rob Anderson. I live here in Glennwood Springs. Um,

and I'm against this and it's um I'm thinking $24 million for 300 residents. And um that just seems kind of crazy to me. And I had a banker years ago that said you can get yourself into lots of things if you try hard enough and do creative financing. But with the sense of urgency that they're purporting, end of May, I worry that uh there might be a wrong decision made here. Um I'll read you a little bit of a letter or yeah, letter that I was going to send. I think you'll read it tomorrow. Um, and I'm I'm writing to urge you not to provide financial assistance to the Soprus Mountain Collective. Here are five re reasons for a no vote. And this is the biggest one for me, and it's fairness. Uh, these people are paying a little over $1,000 a month. Uh, somebody estimates that if this is sold, they might have to pay $2,000 a month. Um, many Glenwood Springs residents struggle with affordability. They don't expect they will receive assistance from the city. Um, they do not expect and they do not they will not receive assistance from the city. Choosing one group to support financially over another is morally unacceptable. We've got a lot of people that are struggling here. I don't know why we picked these 300 people to rescue. Cavern Springs is not in the city. Our funds should be used for city housing or infrastructure needs. The 2C that uh was

passed um that's indirectly my tax dollar whether it's been laundered or not. It's money that comes from the citizens of Glennwood Springs. And I would think that that would be for the citizens of Glenwood Springs. Uh Garfield County hasn't chipped in anything and so apparently I'm not the only one that feels the way I do here. Rob, can you get a little closer to the microphone, please? You can't hear me? We can, but just for the record, so we we record the

Could you get a higher microphone? the the the residents of Cavern Springs are not being displaced. It almost sounds like their people think they're going to if this doesn't go through, they're all going to be displaced. And uh uh we are not obligated to rescue them like all of us. They should be expected to conform to the free market. There's your three minutes.

So, your time is up. Thank you. Thank you very much for your comments. I saved the last one for the best one for last. Okay.

All right. Thank you. Any other comments? Please state your name and whether you live in the city. For the record, I'm Father Bert Chilson. I live in no name. And I just want to say that uh this is what we want to preserve. Many of these folks have lived here in our community for a long time and also in the mobile home park. A number of them I know personally and uh this is an opportunity not just for them to to have ownership in their homes and this property but personal ownership in this. They've already demonstrated a commitment to this valley, to their work, their work ethic, building this valley. And uh they have relationships some with our families and with our children, with their neighborhoods, uh with our schools, and uh those relationships that have been built, we want to maintain and preserve. It's relationships that also um affect our relationship as a community. provides more unity and uh to continue to build up the core of of uh of this society. Thank you. Thank you very much for your comments. Anybody else? Please step up to the microphone, state your name and whether you live in city limit. I'm sorry, city limits or not for the record. Hi, Carolyn Meadowcraftoft and um I am I do live in Goldman Springs outside the city limits. I am a member of the workforce advisory board. So I'm here in support of our committee that did approve um this 500,000. We do have the funds. We um analyzed it very

thoroughly. We looked at the support per unit of people that live in Springs. We totally recognize that the entire project is not within the city limits, but we also understand that we are more of a regional organization. Um the the people who live there are Glom Springs residents whether they're in the city limit or not. Um oddly enough, I lived in this mobile home park 25 years ago. So I have a um you know a feeling for for what they have gone through, what they could be facing if they would possibly have the rent doubled and you know maybe facing the loss of their home. So I I support it.

Okay. Thank you very much for your comments. Anybody else please step up to the microphone, state your name and whether you live in city limits or not for the record.

Good evening. My name is John Fox Rubin. I live in Basalt, Colorado and I ran a business in Glennwood Springs for 10 years. It was called Fiber Forge and I love Glenwood Springs. I believe this community is highly connected. I'm currently a leader at Mountain Voices Project and we've been working on this challenge of preserving mobile home communities throughout the region for several years now. And we also have a white paper on policy recommendations for the state because the state legislation that is enabling this process is called the opportunity to purchase legislation and the legislature has been refining that process for the last few years. But the process still has major gaps. And so until the gaps are filled, we're going to keep having challenges like how do we come up with the subsidy for preserving mobile home communities. There was a proposition 123 that's a state level funding mechanism that was meant to build new and preserve existing housing in the state. 2% of its funding has gone to preservation. Almost all almost all of the remainder of the funding has gone towards building new So, we're working on how do we point out the inconsistencies in the existing legislation. And so, we just want you to know we're working on the system level challenges here. But this opportunity here is very real. And this is not the first time that this has happened to Cavern Springs. This happened in 2020, right when the opportunity to purchase law came in five years ago, and they were unable to prevail at that time. So, I hate losing. I helped them then. I'm trying to help them now. and I appreciate your attention to helping them. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Anybody else here for comments? Name and

Hey, everyone. Hi, council. Hi, Mayor Dem. My name is Katherryn Co. I'm a resident of Carbondale and I'm here as the project organizer with Mountain Voices Project. some some of the comments tonight. I just wanted to clear the air that the municipal code that ballot measure 22, which is what we've been talking about, which created the 2C workforce housing, the municipal code that was put into law, it says, I'm just going to read it out loud here, okay? The monies of the workforce housing fund may be budgeted, appropriated, appropriated and expended for the benefit of the Glenwood Springs workforce for housing projects and funding opportunities in and adjacent to the city for the following purposes. One, property acquisition, including land baking, rehabilitation of existing buildings, hotel or motel conversions, maintaining mobile home parks, and other expenses related to maintaining other existing workforce housing. two, forming partnerships with private, nonprofit, and other public entities to develop workforce housing, including filling financing gaps and leveraging additional resources to create affordable workforce housing. And then there are, you know, other provisions, but I'm not going to read them in the interest of time, but I'm just saying I think the language in the code um is incredibly clear and allows the funding to be used for a project like Cavern Springs and Sous Mountain Collective. Thank you.

Thank you very much for that. Anybody else? Okay, please come forward, state your name and whether you live in city limits or not. Good evening, guys. My name is uh Christian Guzman. I am currently a resident of Cavern Springs uh mobile home park. Um I just wanted to make a comment. I actually work in the City Market Store here in Glenwood. Um just a little point of view. A lot of comments that I get are due to the affordability. Uh there are a lot of employees that I work with that um either drive Newcastle, Silt or Rifle. That's the rule. The exceptions are Carbondale, Basalt, Aspen. Um everybody comes from there and there is always that doubt of what can we get closer to the valley that's not going to break the bank. Um, luckily I was able to get something, have my family here and grow. Um, I really don't want to lose it, you know. Uh, it is also part of the American dream. Own and prosper. Um, it is a concern again with as many people as I work with. I do feel like this is a great chance especially to bring out the Glenwood Springs town as a name that would voice that help for everybody else. Uh, that way we have different or sorry, more mobile parks that are willing uh to move up with the help of the local government. uh whether it be the whole valley or just the county. Um I do wanted to mention um it is a recurring concern with everybody. Um and yeah, that's all I wanted to say.

Okay. Thank you very much. Thanks for being here. Any other comments? Please come forward. State your name and whether you live in city limits or not for the record. is Liliana. Hold on just a second. Okay.

Okay. Riverview. Riverview. Uh, good afternoon. My name is Liliana and I am a teacher at Riverview. I started working at Riverview last year because I saw that there was a need for preschool teachers and my six-year-old child goes to school there as well. Riverview and the district is losing a lot of students and we are trying to get more kids to enroll at Riverview. And what I think would happen is if something were to happen at our park where the residents couldn't afford to pay the rent is that those kids would move and the school would collapse. Riverview.

So, I appreciate any support that you can offer to Cavern Springs to preserve our homes and to preserve our students at Riverview. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any other comments? Please state your name and whether you live in city limits or not.

Hi. Um, my name is Kimberly Andres Martinez. I'm a current resident at Cavern Springs and I'm very sorry I'm like very shy right now. Public speaking isn't my best. I am currently a student at CMC getting my associates. Um I have three younger siblings. One currently um about to graduate this May at Glenwood Springs High School. Two of them are still in school. One of them being my younger sister, um, a freshman in the Glenwood Springs High School and my little brother going into, I'm pretty sure third grade in Riverview. Um, my siblings do love their school. I personally graduated from the Glenwood Springs High School in 2023. I love Glenwood personally. It's an amazing place. I would love to stay here once I graduate with the help of you guys if you guys decide to help. Staying here in the valley would pretty much help me bring my um future and workplace a bit more closer to home in this beautiful place. Um with sorry I'm shaking. Um I currently work at the CMC Vette farm. I don't know if you guys have ever been up there. We always do open houses during Halloween with our animals up there. This is that's pretty much what I'm studying. Um because that's what I want to do. I want to help animals and I know there's a lot of places around here that need and especially in Glenwood where there's the need of people who students to once they graduate college to stay in the valley. Most of them leave. I personally would love to stay here. I love Glenwood. I'm pretty much always in Glenwood. Whether it's shopping, which whether it's hanging out with my parents at the parks, being in

the river with my siblings, or even at the library, I love Glenwood, and I would really hope you guys decide to help us with this. And those kids at the Cavern Springs, you would see them pretty much at the streets playing playing soccer, being on their bikes, and um it's a really nice community. everybody's together and every neighbor pretty much knows everybody and I just want to say um thank you for your time. Thank you very much. You did great. Thank you. Just so you know. Okay. Anybody else? Any other comment? All right. Please. Yep. Please come forward. We should have had a signup sheet on.

Good evening. I'm Karen Juel and I also live at Cabin Springs. I've been there just about 30 years. Um, we moved out here from South Dakota and that was the first place we bought and still live there. I'm retired. It's affordable. It's a quiet neighborhood. We don't have trouble out there. I don't think we ever have cops having to come out there for fights or cards being stolen. So, it's really a quiet place. Um, like the other gal, everybody gets along. You all know your neighbors. Nobody fights and it's just a quiet and a safe place to live, especially with a lot of younger kids that are out there in park now. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Please come forward, state your name and whether you live in city limits or not.

Yeah, my name is Ed Monise. Um, retired UPS driver. I've lived out in Cavern Springs for 36 years. Um, and the gentleman that was opposed, there is a little bit of a threat of being displaced. Uh, these outside investors that come in, which is apparent with the property just past us, you know, they're going to come in and just blow the place up and make tons of money. And our property would be very valuable if we were displaced. You know, look at the rents around here. Um, and there are a lot of retirees. There's a and people of retirement age also that live there and there's disability uh my brother-in-law is here with me. he has disabilities and there are a couple other that are disabled and uh there's a retired vets and um I mean it's a community and we're all making more and more friends now as but you know I I know my surrounding neighbors very well but since this has taken place we've become more friendly and and have relationships with them and uh box stores are reasons for these people to come into Glenwood spend their money there's all this money here in you know, uh we pay our taxes, we register our vehicles, we vote next door. You know, everyone is a part of Glenwood, whether it's uh considered inside or outside of the the city limits. We are a community part of Glenwood and uh we want to stay that way and we want it to be affordable because some of us do have pensions, some of us do not just retirement, but rents go up higher and there's there's several families or people that live by themselves. So, I don't know how they're going to be able to afford any rate increase if if that does happen, especially by an outside investor. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Any other comments?

Please state your name for the record.

Hey guys, Matt Spyell, uh, Glenwood Springs, uh, resident, Glenwood Springs business owner, and you guys know me from the 2C as well. Um, I think we've covered everything. The only things I'm going to add is like I'm super proud. I want to give everyone a hand just for showing up. Please give yourself a hand. I mean, this is community involvement at its best when people show up like this. This is rare. So, thank you guys. And I we we've approved several other jobs or projects um Canyon Vista, L3 where we could not guarantee that they were Glennwood Springs resident workers, but we have a great knowledge that we're we're doing for a quarter of what Aspen's putting in into this and we have it in our budget. we can make a huge impact and capital capital private capital does not care about this. They they care about return on investment and we have this opportunity to to maintain our diversity of housing and I hope you do that. Thank you guys.

Thank you Matt. Thanks for being here. Any more comments? Okay, I'll see none. I'll close the public portion of this hearing and I will bring it back to council. Uh this is an action item tonight. So I am entertaining a motion and we're going to go with council shear. Thank you mayor. I want to start with one comment for the sake of our visitors. Our procedure is to make motions and then have council comments. So just so you understand the process. Thank you. Thank you.

Um Mr. Mayor, I would recommend I move to approve the forgivable loan request from West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition for Cavern Springs Mobile Home Park with an affordability coven upon the mobile home park property. Um, based on the findings that are in our packet, page 186, there are two recommended findings, but I'd like to elaborate a little bit more if I may, um, that are not listed on those two. Thank you, Watkins. One is this is clearly allowed under the 2C referendum and mandate and falls under that umbrella. Um number two, should we be successful, we are clearly um adding control of cost and stability for the community. Um the cost is also way less than replacement of any new housing. Um there appears to be and seems to be an economic benefit to the city um in terms of shopping and e economic value. Um there is also the fact that we are entering a partnership which is also one of our housing mandates and will help us should we be asking in the future. It is development neutral. Um, I think for now that's enough findings. Thank you.

Okay, we have a motion to approve to say it the short way. Uh, Mayor Prom Solinski, I would like to second that motion. Okay, we have a motion and a second to approve this request. Now, let's go with comments from council. I'll start.

Oh, you want to keep going? Please go. Yeah. Um, so you know, this this fits within so much of what our kind of like higher goals are. You know, we we have this mandate. Um, Mr. Anderson was a little bit uh I think maybe misinformed. This is not his tax dollars. This was a fund that was created by ballot language. It's a new fund. This is a source of money that is specific for workforce housing. And we are not picking winners. we're preserving an asset then I think that's a really important distinction. Um this is an asset for anybody who is currently enjoying it and who will come after that and I think that we should like rec take a moment to recognize that. Um development neutral is something that I think aligns with our core values. Um and I appreciate learning. I was concerned when I saw this on our docket, you know, if we had the latitude to do that based on the 2C language and so I feel really comfortable that um we are being good stewards of this and uh acting appropriately.

Okay. Thank you. Any other comments? Councelor Smith.

Thank you. Um the notion that money from this particular city fund ought to be used for projects and residences and residents uh within Glenwood Springs is very compelling. Uh the the even aside from how the money was approved or is allocated, the a big part of the vision behind this is keeping a an a diverse close-knit community where people work where they live, live near where they shop, go to schools near their homes. Um kind of the the qualitative aspects of this fund um are very important. Turns out you can do that without necessarily being inside the city limits. Uh this is a this is a project that still fulfills those things. Keeps children in our school district, helps people stay close to where they shop and and preserve that that integrated community network uh even though it's a couple miles away. So, uh, I think that argument is com is is compelling that we want to use this to enhance the Glenwood Springs life experience and I think this does that. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Town.

I've got I've got a couple things. Um, you know, I I don't doubt that the sense of community and all the pieces that you've talked about tonight are very real and very compelling. Um, I do have some reservations and I I don't know that I'm totally as convinced as everybody else has been here that we've clearly met all the guidelines of the 2C funding and the ordinance that went into place. Uh, I I just, you know, there's there's what's written in in the language, which I'm think is pretty murky at best, and then also the intent of that when the voters approved it. Um, when we're when we're looking at something where, you know, obviously a an investment firm or somebody's taking big advantage of this. They paid 4.5 million for it in in 2018 and now it's 24 million. So, it's a 500% increase. You know, those those aren't good things. You guys are the on the sad end of that of that story. And that's not good. On the other hand, when I when I look at the price of a two-bedroom apartment, and I just I picked Buffalo Valley, but it could be any of these in Glennwood Springs. And a two-bedroom apartment's 2,700, and a three-bedroom apartment's 3,300. and we're talking about affordability. I do think there's an issue to look at when we say, "Okay, are we how come we're we're picking this group of people to give them something that are we going to subsidize everybody in the valley?" Because I mean, even if you doubled rents, and I understand there's probably mortgage payments on some of these and maybe some of them there aren't, but we still have a lot of people that are paying way more than that in just rent, let alone household income. So I think the the piece of of where it go out and and people could be displaced. It's a commercially zoned piece of land. I don't think that's what would happen, but maybe that maybe that does happen. But I do think that, you know, worst even doubling. I mean, it's not good. There's there's no answer to that. But

how you tell somebody that comes in here that's paying $3,000 a month in rent and his rent's going to keep going up year after year that we've taken tax funds and we've said, "Okay, we're going to take a project that's outside the city limits of Glenwood and we're going to choose these people to help." And then somewhere down the line, somebody comes in and says, you know, we're ready to do something on a park that's here in Glenwood or another type of project that comes along. We say, "Well, we don't we can't help you there because we've used all that money." So, those are those are some of my reservations at this point. The other one one other reservation is that and this has nothing to do with you guys because you're not you're affected by it, but your residents of Garfield County, Garfield County apparently doesn't want to fund anything for anybody. They want us to build them a bridge, a bypass, a fire mitigation route, and house Garfield County citizens, which are also, you know, citizens of the valley, citizens of Glenwood. that you know there should be at some point they should step forward and do something. So those are my reservations at this point.

Okay. Thank you councelor Schmall.

This project clearly fulfills many of the goals of the 2C ballot issue measure. Clearly a worthy a worthy project, a good community. I wish you success in your pursuit of buying your property. I hope you I hope you're able to make it happen. I really do. On the other hand, I think that the 2C ballot measure passed in the interest specifically of Glennwood Springs, not outside of Glenwood Springs. I wrestled also with the term adjacent and I could find no I could find no relevant definition from that word that makes Cavern Springs adjacent to Glenwood Springs. It's close and it's definitely part of the community, but I don't think it fits the bill with the intent or the or the description that was in the ballot. There's also six more parks in Glenwood Springs that are probably going to be subject to the same thing that you're experience experiencing where you are now. And that's unfortunate. Um, we can vilify Garfield County for not funding this, but the reality is that there are limits to how much how much resource there is and how it's allocated. and we have to make those hard decisions about how that how that gets allocated. And I think we're going to have more demand than we're going to have capacity for in the future. So on those issues, I'll have a hard time

supporting this motion. Thank you, Council Shack.

Thank you. Um I will respectfully address the last two counselors why I might disagree with them. Number one, not being able to help everyone shouldn't be an excuse not to help a current situation. Um, that to me is clear. Um, this does meet legally and I believe ethically all the guidelines that we've set up both at the time of the referendum as well as how the commission, the 2C commission has evolved. And bear in mind it was a unanimous decision by Tusi and a critical part of our comp plan. So I think that's important. I would also say as Ry said it fills many of our goals and it's worthy. It is in the interest of Glenwood. Um we have workforce there, we have kids there, we have shoppers there. Adjacent can mean anything you want. It still fits the intent of the commission and the referendum in my opinion. And I also believe there's a critical element here. Yes, we have more parks. We don't know if and when they will come up, but it's our goal right now, I don't think, to bank money for opportunities that may come up or not, but to spend the money as mandated for opportunities that have come up. And this is one that has come up. And just as importantly, we are a relatively small contributor to a large regional effort, which I also believe gives us the very leverage we'll need when other opportunities come up that we not may not be able to afford. So we can go to our other neighbors in the valley saying, "We helped you. We need to help now." But right now, this is a critical opportunity in front of us that meets all the criteria that we've been shooting for housing. So, I

respectfully would support this and disagree with some of the perceptions of some of my councilmen. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Councelor Wymer. There was a gentleman that spoke tonight against uh this measure and he talked about it being his tax money uh laundered or not, I think was his language, but unless he's a lodger, unless he unless he books accommodation in town, it's not his tax money. So, so 2C, Proposition 2C was a 2 and a half% accommodations tax levied on top of the existing 2 and a half% accommodations tax, right? So, so no one in this room is paying tax safely said toward, right? This these are tourists and visitors. So, I wanted to make that clarification. I also would ask my my fellow counselors to stay super focused on what the mandate is and how this addresses the mandate. Proposition 2C is not to keep kids in our school district. Proposition 2C is not to keep the vitality or the energy of the community. It's not. Proposition 2C is toward workforce housing and it's and it's only to be used for workforce housing and it can only be used by a person working within the city limits or inside of the zip code. There's the adjacent part semantics. you know, I think that becomes much more of a subjective decision whether you want to, you know, parachute probably not adjacent. Uh, Carbondale obviously more adjacent somewhere between Carbondale and here um probably more so, but I but I don't know that we need to to define adjacency tonight. I think it's it's it's about focus on

workforce and it's and it's focus on people working within the city limits or inside of the zip code. I discredit the 36% uh data point because I think that it probably takes into account a lot of students. I don't there's just no way that you can um uh logically uh take take the you know feel like you're doing a good job taking the students out of that number regardless or or irregardless as as my dad would say. Um there's there there there's no doubt that there are a there there is a statistically significant number of people in this mobile home park who are Glennwood Springs or 80601 workforce folks. Um I I don't know that anybody could could deny that. Um and so while I came into this this conversation, this discussion uh against against this um I am now in support. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you very much, Council Smith.

Thank you. Um, our advisory board member mentioned this, but I kind of want to pile on um to appreciate the people who turned out tonight to observe and many of them to to bravely speak on this measure. Uh several months ago, many of you and many more of your neighbors came here well organized, well prepared with your remarks, eloquent in your remarks, and we sent you packing. Uh so I admire your tenacity uh in bring your organization together in having patience to try again. I don't know how this vote will go. We won't know that in a little bit. Either way, your sticking with it is admirable and I appreciate your patience. Thank you.

Thank you. If I see no more comments, which I don't, a couple of things. Um, first of all, thank you for clarifying the tax um situation here. I completely agree with you. It is not his tax. It is accommodations tax that has been thankfully paid by um tourists and visitors. Um, I had a a couple of concerns about the um within city limits and and 81601 and and I would like to talk to Carl for a second if I could because I think you're the one that actually wrote the ballot language and I would like to hear you for the record say that this intent of what we're trying to do.

I mean, every voter is different, but let me let me start with the actual ballot language because there's two two things going on. There's the ballot language and there's the enabling. And what you heard read earlier was the enabling ordinance and not actually the ballot language as it relates um to um the ballot language. There's probably two provisions of that um uh well there were three bullet points. One was increase the supply of workforce housing for Glenwood Springs residents and employees of Glenwood Springs businesses uh including but not limited to purchasing real property addressing infrastructure and redeveloping existing housing. Uh another bullet bullet point was provide resources for the city to form partnerships with the private and nonprofit sectors and other public entities to develop workforce housing. Um and the third was to support programs to reduce the cost of renting or purchasing workforce housing, provide available housing, and maintaining existing affordable housing within the city. So that was the that was the lang that was the ballot language. Um in terms of you you heard it read before, but I think the two the language and I I was the author of it, but not not the one that voted on it. And so I I can't speak to what you guys or those that that voted on it at the time. Uh two things uh property acquisition including land banking, rehabilitation of existing buildings, hotels, motel conversions, maintaining mobile home parks. Uh and there again forming uh partnerships with private and nonprofit and other public entities. And we use the language, you know, that question of adjacency. Um, and I think that adjacent means what you guys interpret it to mean. I'll be really frank with you that um, I think at the time there were discussions around what that meant in terms of temporal proximity. And I think to councelor Wymer's point, I

think 81601 is a really good Yeah. way to think about that adjacency honestly because it also kind of goes to other portions of our code and other portions of this talking about where what where you can be and and be eligible for our affordable housing programs and all of those kinds of things. So from my perspective if council finds that this is adjacent I think it is a reasonable finding and I think it is um supportable and defensible. So that's where I would leave it at. I you know I would suggest if you wanted to you could add that to the motion. I don't know that you need to. You've had a lot of discussion around it but there again I find it a defensible position.

Okay. Thank you. That's what I'd like to hear. Um the other thing I want to mention quick is the the fairness of we're helping one group but not the other. Um and and maybe a lot of people are not aware of this, but the Glen City of Glenwood Springs actually has a rental assistance program um that you can uh apply for um if you are in the workforce housing in Glennwood Springs and and you need you need help to get to get your place affordable. So check it out on the website. So um it's not limited to just you guys. We're helping a lot of people across the board. We're we're submitting funds to the Western Housing Coalition. We're involved in all kinds of things to help out. So, um I don't want to go back to comments if we don't absolutely have to, but if you got one more thing.

Okay. Please, Council Danley. Mike. Oh, back to our council. So, two or three times in here, somebody said, "Well, it's within 81601," which I hadn't read that when I was there. And and I don't think you just read that to me unless you're saying no I I was saying that it it was a way to think about it's a way around that language itself. Well well I don't know it's a way of ramble language. It's a way of thinking about adjacency. I I'm not going to put words in anybody's mouth about how you about that and interpret it. But I do think adjacency as the the ordinance is written is something for council to determine what they believe adjacency is.

And if you use 81601 I think that is a defensible position. say that was the answer. And then did you also read that it said in the ballot language within the city?

Uh as to one of the bullet points. Yeah, hang on. Let me pull it up for you. Um uh support programs to reduce the cost of renting or purchasing workforce housing, provide available housing, and maintain existing affordable housing within the city. Um depending on how you read where the commas are, it either modifies the whole clause or just that last clause. So, um, there again, I that's what the ballot language says. So, I'll leave it to you guys. Okay. Thank you. With no more comments, huh? Amen. For what?

Uh, I don't I think we'll leave it alone. I just want to make sure everybody understands. We have a motion um to approve with a bunch of findings and a second to support that. So, with that, I will call the question. No, Councelor Townsley. Yes, Mayor Prom Zalinsky. Yes, Mayor Dame. Yes, Councelor Wymer. No, Councelor Schmall. Yes, Councelor Smith. Yes, Councelor Shaker. It passes 52.

Thank you, Ryan. And before everybody heads out, I do want to say thank you to all of you for being here. Now, it's not easy to speak in front of people sitting in on on the board like this, but thank you for for being here and and and making your case tonight. Um, you were successful. So, I wish you best of luck and then and keep enjoying your homes. So, go for it. Thank you. Yes. Do a five minute recess.

half of city council meeting for um May 7th tonight. Moving into item 11, right ofway and grading permits. Ryan Gordon, city engineer.

Uh good evening, council. Ryan Gordon, city engineer. um bringing back both the rightway and grading permits for for review. Last time you challenged us to make a few tweaks um and so we we went back to the drawing board and took a look. So on the grading permit, what we ended up doing is we made the floor we we changed a few of the requirements. So um what we said that if you're adding 200 square feet of impervious, so hardcape, we still want you to come back with the permit and tell you what tell us what you're doing if you're affecting your neighbors. Uh the the the the substantial change is we lowered the floor if you're just doing a like for like for example you're taking out some lawn and putting in some flower beds that we said we we bumped it up from 200 to 500 square f feet. Um we thought that was relatively reasonable considering that again we're not changing the condition. Um what we have put into the permit to kind of protect ourselves and the applicant and others is um explicit language that says you are not allowed your water from your property is not allowed to flow over to your adjacent property owner adjacent property excuse me and negatively affect them. Um we also added in there that the engineering department has discretion over the penalties applied. Um, again, our our our our goal in this is not to be heavy-handed with the penalties. Um, and that's why one allows someone who's come in as may not have known the regulations to comes in in good faith and and and brings their issue and resolves it and we can wave those. So, again, we wanted the the engineering department to have the discretion to to control that. Um, I know one of the things on the rightway permit that was that was requested or or was was thinking about how can we, you know, minimize the the negative impacts from from development say in the downtown core or others. Um, we ended up deciding the what what we had in the rightway permit that you reviewed previously um that that's here now is we didn't make those changes and and and really the reason why is is number one

prior to a rightaway permit being issued it is reviewed by the engineering department. So that includes the impacts of of of the project and we can limit what we would approve in that in in that permit. Um also the permit has a six-month expiration date. So if things are going poorly, we have the opportunity to correct problems. Um and uh uh again with with the new penalties we have in there, we think we have a way of compelling an applicant to fix their problems if if there are there. So, with that being said, I'll leave that open to you guys for comments and discussions if you have questions over these these these permits or not.

Okay. Thank you, Ryan. We'll start with questions uh from councelor. So Ryan, this is these are additional requirements in order to obtain a grading permit and making it formal that you need to get a grading permit that maybe wasn't existing before. Is that Have I got that right?

No, no. I we we are really just the permit has always existed. The grading permit has always existed in the city if you're doing modifications to your to your property. What we're doing is doing slight tweaks what we think is both cost balancing it as I presented last time um it it was the cost structured larger projects that deserve more land had a relatively you know minuscule uh fee. What we've done is we've said look if you have a bigger project that has more impacts we're going to charge you more money. And a lot of that is just not because we don't like you or your grading, but is the amount of review it takes for city staff to take in a big development and review it. So, a lot of it's it's it's trying to balance that better. Um, and then again, what we're trying to do is is making it more straightforward. Uh, we are adding penalties to this. Um, and then the reason why is we want to have the ability to make sure people are are following the permit. So, that's really so it's not any new requirements from when you required a a a a permit. In fact, um, per direction from you guys, we've actually made it a little bit easier or less less stringent, right? Raising the limits from 200 to 500. Um, we've exempted a lot of projects that would just be your normal landscaping project. So, we're we're trying to to to I'm going to say is thread that needle between um oversight and and your ability to do what you want on your property. So, you made it hopefully made it clearer and easier on the applicant side.

That that is that is our goal. And and you're making it more burdensome for your department to review and evaluate. Is that right? Well, I would say since we are I I you know, taking the burden from those smaller projects from a square footage perspective, I think we're going to relieve some of our folks from from having to do um look at those smaller projects, right? So, I I I I think it actually really satisfies a bunch of different criteria. I think at the end of the day, our lives will be slightly easier and and less burdensome from this. So, you won't need more staff for enforcement or for evaluation, not beyond what we have now.

Great. Okay, any other questions? Okay, we'll see none. Thank you, Ryan. Anybody from the public? Also see none. Moving on, bring it back to council. We do need to make a decision in this. So in obtaining a motion and uh uh right right ofway and grading permits uh item 11 on the agenda mayor prompsia I would like to move to approve ordinance 2026-07 an or nope that's wrong one sorry my bad

um this is much easier to read right to approve the uh revisions to the right of way and grading permits as presented. Thank you. Motion to approve and a second. Council Wymer. Second. Excellent. Second from Council Wymer. Any more discussion? We have a motion to approve and a second to um follow that. So, I'll call for the question. It passes unanimously.

Thank you, Ryan. Moving on. Item 12 in tonight's agenda. Ordinance 202607, an ordinance of the city of Glenwood Springs, Colorado, uh, reszoning seven parcels totaling 20.84 acres from the Glenwood Springs Mall planned unit development, also known as a PUD to mixeduse corridor M1 district. This is the second reading, so we've already done the first one. I think it was last meeting, I think. So, this is just a follow-up second reading as as always, uh, with an ordinance. Councelor Wymer, or is there anything Trent? I think we we do want to open up for public comment. Uh we don't I there was some confusion. Um we're working through some changes to the consent agenda. I apologize. So just a quick motion. There's no requirement for public hearing since it's the second reading.

Yeah. Okay. Excellent. That's what I thought. Thank you. Thank you. Um Trent as well. Council Wymer. Mr. Mayor, may I ask if I can do pass all three second readings in a single motion?

As long as you read the titles to all three. Mr. Mayor, I move to approve ordinance 2026-07 ordinance springs Colorado resing seven parcels totaling 20.8 acres from Snowwood Springs Mall planned need development to mixeduse corridor M1 district. also move to approve uh sorry within the same motion to approve ordinance 2026-08 an ordinance of the city of Gal Springs Colorado May Springs Municipal Court code regarding regulation and permitting of exterior lighting and signage planning file CDA 0000272026 and also to approve ordinance 2026-09 ordinance city springs Colorado amending Bledwood Springs Municipal Code regarding regulation and permitting of landscaping screening and fencing planning file CDA 00026-2026.

Okay. Excellent. We have a motion to approve and a sec a fast second to go with it. Any discussion? I see none. I'll call for the question to approve all three of them. Item 12, 13, and 14 on the agenda. It passes unanimously. Excellent. That concludes our Thank you, Councelor Wymer. Good job. That concludes our discussions and actions. I move to dismiss the meeting. Not dismissing. Oops.

Council comments. We'll start with Councelor Townsley tonight. Councelor Schmall, Mayor Prom Solinski. Okay. Councelor Smith. Oh, I thought I was in a roll. you were you got halfway across. Nice job. Thank you. Um just want to note that two senior staff members from the city staff have departed recently um for retirement and new opportunities. Respectfully, Doug Hazard at the electric department and Sarah Wigel at the administration office um both have done remarkable service in very different ways. Uh the the electric system in this town is is resilient as it really needs to be and is there is is works uh and has pretty rapidly flexed to respond to sudden bursts of development uh this new surge of of high demand electric car charging networks uh and squirrels. Uh so it's it's it's a it's a diverse job and it was handled for a long time by a very smart leader. I appreciate his service. Um we spend a lot of time in public and in in individual conversations with our senior administrative staff. Um and they make the city look really good. They make the city perform really well. and Sarah Wiggle made them look good by making keeping things on track, keeping things scheduled, communications crisp and sharp and among many other things running the entire accessible communications conversion of city records and city communication systems. So, those two people um aren't present, but I think they got some other appreciation gestures, but I wanted to

add to those and thanking them for for their service. Um this evening we had a work session with one of our advisory commissions about that has a really robust membership and really diverse membership. Two people came. That happened twice before recently. I wonder if one factor is having those volunteers invited to come here in the middle of the afternoon. I wonder if instead we might bump the volunteer advisory commission work sessions later into the work session schedule closer to as soon the work done as a suggestion. Thank you.

I give them an option. Yeah, I I give the staff liaison an option. I ask them they ask uh the board and commission uh members when they want to go. So they have first uh priority. Okay.

Okay. I was at was at the historic preservation meeting the other night and however that got communicated one direction or the other, a bunch of people said, "I wish I could be there, but I can't." Um, I think it doesn't hurt to, unless they object to bump them closer to the closing of the workday to make make it a little bit more possible for members to attend. Thank you. Yeah, fine. Thank you, Ryan. It's it's fine. Um, we we can definitely keep the conversation going when they want to do it. So, councelor Jack. Yeah. A couple quick kudos as

um just kudos uh chief to the recent uh fire and EMS openhouse and event that was phenomenal again and the weather cooperated thankfully. Great turnout and great show of our resources and to Jim Hardcastle um Aaron Zalinsky and our river commission for the spring river cleanup which is very successful and well organized. So, thank you. Thank you. Okay, we'll go back to Mayor Prom Solinsky quick. Yeah, over 60 people showed up and 2,000 lbs of trash was picked up, so it was not insignificant.

Nice. Good info, Councilw the handbook and the process. Uhhuh. Okay. So, um, we talked a little bit about this last fall, um, right around the time there was that homeless encampment fire behind the Walmart. Um, I think and and we started getting some traction. No, we didn't. I I I started

talking a little bit about um looking, you know, looking into the possibility of adding like a fire uh uh safety search charge or fee or whatever the language is going to need to be to those one pound uh gas canister.

Propane. Propane. Yeah. Um, yeah. So, so I think couple of things. Um, they're incredibly dangerous up there on the hillside. When the fire starts, you can literally hear them pop um and spread. Um, second, they're they're a huge source of trash um up in those camps. If you've ever walked, it's mattresses and one pound gas canisters. Um, and I think there's some room to address uh both of those hazards. I would like to see if there's uh interest uh amongst you guys to bring this into a work session to start diving into the details.

Okay, there's a request. Um, did we get any support? Councilors, Councelor Townsley, Councelor Schmall, I'm going to turn you all on and then you can just do your thing. Mayor Prom Solinski and Councelor Smith, I would at the end. So, I'll start. I would definitely like to see us talk about that some more. The one thing that scares me a little bit is if we say, "Okay, you can't use a gas canister. Do we have open fires going up there for people cooking?" Be just a charge onto those canisters. I know. Again, making them harder to Oh, I get you.

Right. So, do we, you know, do we do one I don't know the answer to that question, but that would be something good to to look at is they're going to cook their food somehow. So, okay. Thank you, Dave. Councelor Schmol. Yeah. I don't I I think probably most of those are stolen anyway, so I don't think they're going to pay the fee. Um I I I really am more interested in a more comprehensive plan on how to discourage homeless residents in Glennwood Springs. Does that be a big part of that? Or a start starting brick,

right?

Any anything we can do to dis to discourage um because I saw the numbers in the first quarter report and the increases was it four-fold from last year in at least in the encounters. Um and I tell you it's it's going to get worse. We we were well advised to deal with it now before it gets a lot harder to deal with. And I don't know the answers, but I've heard a lot of what we can't do. I haven't heard a lot of what we can do. And I think as a city, it's incumbent upon us to do more of what we can do.

Thank you. So, so just to be clear, it sounds like the the work work session has now turned into more of a homeless and propane canister. Um, is that is that still your your kind of intention? Where are you, Councelor Wymer? I'd like to start by staying tactical and focused on this first issue and allow that to become uh a starting point for a broader discussion. Okay, I think that covers it. Thank you. You turned me on, but he has a very tough time. Okay. Okay. Just wanted to jump in. Everybody understands what we're doing. Mayor Proteins.

Thank you. Um I I was going to basically redirect us back to that and just say, you know, like I think we could look at this as a tool in the toolbox and a tactic to start with. Um and then you know to councelor Tsley's point like look at it holistically to see what could be the unintended consequences and make sure that we are addressing those at the same time. So if it's you know a more strided ban on open flames or um some sort of recognition of you know cause and effect of that I think that that should be part of that conversation. So maybe some sort of a staff report in like prior to Sounds good. Thank you, Councelor Smith.

I concur on both the original point and the follow-up point uh that let's focus on this um as a as a beginning measure may lead to other conversations. Um and if if indeed this request is translating into staff doing some research and bringing back some proposals. Um I'd suggest that among the options be an outright ban on the sale of disposable fuel containers in Glenwood Springs. uh they're a they're a dangerous wasteful hazard wherever they're wherever they end up. Let's just not sell them. Um knowing that that's not going to go real far, I'd still like to know kind of the dynam legal dynamics of that. Um and to also consider a third option to simply put a uh deposit return measure on this which motivates opportunists to gather them up and bring them in for a dollar.

Exactly. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Um, okay. So, I guess talking about schedule, anything we can do next meeting or is it too soon? We can probably get on next meeting. Okay. Just something to start and have about half hour, 45 minutes to to start with him and then maybe figure out where else we want to go. Okay. Excellent. Thank you. Um, that leaves me and I don't think I have anything. That's correct. So, uh, city manager Steve Boyd. Uh, nothing for me. Thank you. Okay. City attorney Bob Hen. Uh, nothing for me.

Yeah. You You're clear. You're good. Don't have to check. Uh, Mr. Muse, city clerk, correspondence. Nothing. Nothing. Excellent. Then Mayor Prom Sinski, please. a social event. I think I think we're going to reconvene over at DAX today. That's all. Yeah, I think change. Okay. Back. Yeah. Been a minute. That sounds great. So, everybody heard it. Uh, and obtaining a motion to adjurnn. I so move. And a second. Second. All in favor? No. Can't do that. Sorry. Got a call for the question. Ryan, one more time. Let's roll.

Awesome. Dave, you stay in here tonight. We good. We made it out.