Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

I'm going to go ahead and call to order the August 19th, 2026 Planning Zoning Commission. First item is call to order.

Roll call. Chair Pollin?

Here.

Commissioner Edgley-Wells? Here. Commissioner Arment? Here. Vice Chair Earle? Here. Commissioner Saunders? Here. Commissioner Boone? Here. Commissioner Jordan? Here. Council Member Popkin? Here. Chair, you have a quorum.

Thank you very much. Next is the land acknowledgement. We acknowledge that Longmont sits on the traditional territory of the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Ute, and other indigenous peoples. We honor the history and the living and spiritual connection that the first people have with this land. It is our commitment to face the injustices that happened when the land was taken and to educate our communities, ourselves, and our children to ensure that these injustices do not happen again. Next is communications from Grant Penland.

Good evening, Chair. Members of the Commission, just like to say thank you all for being here and say also happy August.

Thank you. Next is first public invited to be heard. This is the initial public invited to be heard. This is opportunity for the public to come. They get up to five minutes to speak to us about items that are not on the agenda today, are not going to be coming before us as quasi-judicial items. So there is nobody on the sign-up sheet, but I will open it up to the public to walk forward. Seeing nobody walk forward, I'll go ahead and close up. Public invited to be heard. Next is approval of the minutes from the July 22nd, 2026 meetings. Are there any corrections, any questions, comments, or are there any motions? I'll go ahead and move that we approve the minutes for the July 22nd, 2026 meeting. Do we have a second? We have a second by Vice Chair Earle. Jane, let's take a vote.

Commissioner Edgley-Wells? Yes. Commissioner Armit?

Aye. Aye.

Vice Chair Earle? Yes. Chair Polin? Yes. Commissioner Saunders? Yes. Commissioner Boone? Yes. Commissioner Jordan? Yes. Chair, that passes unanimously 7-0.

Thank you very much. Next, we move to public hearing items. We have one item today that is the 801 Main Street Recovery Cafe Conditional Use Site Plan. Senior Planner Phil Taylor presenting.

Good evening, everybody. Phil Taylor, Senior Planner with the City of Longmont. I am here to provide a brief overview of the Recovery Cafe Conditional Use Site Plan being considered this evening. To start, we're going to provide some context for the site. Subject property is located at the intersection of 8th Street and Main at the northwest corner. Subject property totals approximately 0.23 acres, or 10,000 square feet, and it is zoned mixed-use downtown, or MUD. The specific request this evening is the applicants are requesting approval for a conditional use site plan to allow the recovery cafe to operate at the location of 801 main street. The next couple of slides are going to talk about the site layout and a few proposed additions to the building. Um, as you can see from the site plan here, you can see the extent of the existing building shown here. the proposed addition along the western edge of the building, a proposed interior courtyard, and a trash enclosure located along the northern property line. This site plan also shows some improvements to the right of way heading parking along 8th Avenue. Now on your screen are a couple architectural perspectives of the proposed addition. The top left image is a view from 8th Avenue looking towards the intersection of 8th and Main. And then the lower right corner is from across the intersection looking across at the intersection of 8th and Main. You can now see the architectural elevation directly from the site plan. This south elevation would be the facade adjacent to 8th Avenue. You can show the proposed access points here and here, and the location of a future public mural or art installation. two additional architectural elevations from the site plan. The top right image here would be the front of the building adjacent to Main Street. And this door would sort of operate as the main entrance. And then the image along the bottom left corner is from the view from the alley. So the back of the building where the trash enclosure is seen here. A couple important details I did want to point out. The building is old. It was constructed around 1919 and inadvertently constructed over the southern property line by approximately 0.6 feet. That is a known encroachment. The city knows about it. The applicants know about it. They do not have to address it with this site plan. It is going to stay exactly where it is. I bring that up to highlight two additional proposed encroachments related to sort of entrance canopies above two of the entrance doors. One would be along the 8th Avenue right of way and then one would be proposed on the Main Street right of way. And you can see those shown here. Due to the building's construction built up to the lot line or a zero foot setback, any sort of entrance feature or door overhang would be extremely difficult or impossible to fit on the site. So the proposals here for sort of entrance canopies to encroach into the right-of-way. Another important detail I wanted to discuss is the secondary use analysis for the property. The use classification for this is other community uses, services, and facilities operated by a government or nonprofit organization. And that use is a conditional secondary use in the mixed use downtown zone district. So per this map, the mixed use downtown zone district totals approximately 190 acres. And if you combine all of the secondary uses prohibited uses or, and missing or unknown uses, you get approximately 60 acres of non primary uses leaving, um, Certainly adequate land for future primary uses and enough land to accommodate the secondary use. All of that to say, the secondary use classification should not be a concern with this proposal. The programming inside the building is sort of the use we're considering this evening. The programming will include designated meeting rooms to support one-on-one assistance. There will be a commercial kitchen used for daily meal prep and future job readiness training. There will be multi-purpose rooms to host recovery programming and educational events. And the community rooms will also be available to outside organizations, other nonprofits when they're not in use by the recovery cafe. If you have any questions about what's going to go on in the building, how it's going to work, who's going to operate it, the recovery cafe team is here. They will answer any questions you have about the programming in the building. The focus of the review this evening is the proposed use, establishing the recovery cafe as a conditional secondary use. You are certainly also, you should review the building, you should review the site layout, provide any suggested edits or modifications if you think necessary. It's important to point out the site plan in your packet has gone through several reviews with DRC staff. There are no review comments remaining. So if it was not a conditional use, the site plan sort of meets all applicable design standards and could be reproved. The applicants have met all public noticing obligations. They did hold a neighborhood meeting in July of 2024. During that meeting, one citizen attended the meeting and provided comments. In general support, however, had a couple questions about how the alley would be operated and how it would be used after the addition. Following the notice of application in August of 2025, we received one public comment. Generally in support, we had a couple design suggestions. Those public comments are included in your document packet. And then finally, just a few weeks ago when we sent out the notice of public hearing, we received one public comment, which was provided after the packet was done. So you received it as a hard copy today. It's important to point out that the hard copy comments from this evening are the same resident from the neighborhood meeting in 2024, sort of providing similar comments. You can now see the review criteria for all application types directly from the land use code. Staff has provided an analysis of all six of these review criteria in the staff report. So I'm not going to go through them here. But I did want to point out that conditional use site plans are evaluated against these review criteria. There are not additional review criteria applicable to conditional use site plans. Finally, the decision before you this evening is to either approve the application without conditions, approve the application with conditions, or deny the application. Staff has provided a recommendation in the staff report that is also seen here. Staff is recommending approval of the conditional use site plan. I'm happy to answer questions now. I know the applicant also has a presentation, but that concludes staff's presentation. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Let's move to the applicant. now that I know where it is.

Thank you. All right. Well, thank you, Phil. I appreciate that introduction. So I'm Catherine with Lightwell Architecture.

Can you move the mic down just a little bit closer? Oh, sure.

Yes. OK. I'm Catherine with Lightwell Architecture, and Lexi Wilk is the project architect. We're here and excited about this project. We wanted to give you an introduction of just the project itself, the site plan, and then we'll walk through Recovery Cafe Longmont. We won't speak to them specifically as Chris will do that from Recovery Capital of Longmont, but we'll go over some reasons why this new building, a new space, the proposed, will be able to enhance their operations. And lastly, we'll go through a video that is a fly-through just to walk around the proposed building. So Phil talked about a lot of these elements already, so I'll just skim over them. But the existing building is shown here, item one, the interior courtyard, and then the proposed addition. The existing building is about 5,000 square feet. The proposed addition is about 1,800 square feet. Here you can see the rear. This is the existing easement that will be maintained. Street trees here to be maintained existing. New head-in parking and new sidewalk that's completely redone. And I'm going to pass it over to Lexi Wilk, who will talk through the Recovery Cafe Longmont and why we're here.

Hi, everyone. I'm Lexi. Thanks for having us. Just to talk a little bit about Recovery Cafe. Like Katherine said, Chris is here tonight, and we'll speak a bit more to them directly. But you'll probably recognize a few of the faces on here. We have Voltrina DeFranstufor here as well, the executive director, and Matt McKinney, who is a board member with Recovery Cafe. As Phil mentioned, they are currently, their existing program is within the Longmont Downtown District at 402 Kembark Street. As Phil mentioned, they are a nonprofit organization, and they have a mission to create a community of healing, empowering people to be their best selves. The existing cafe has been operating in the basement of Central Longmont Church for quite a few years now, and having very much enjoyed their time there, they have outgrown the space. They recognize specific areas for improvement that this new building can provide. In the first image here on the left, you will see their existing stairs. So the cafe's current entrance is, their main entrance is down a set of stairs. On the right side of the image, you'll see the proposed entry at the new cafe, which is fully accessible. The cafe is very much looking forward to a space that is fully and equally accessible to people both by foot and by wheelchair. The building program is made up of spaces very similar to surrounding community uses, such as a cafe, commercial kitchen, offices, and community spaces. You're also likely familiar with the existing building on this property. It was recently occupied by Hope's Storehouse. The building site definitely has a unique mixture of uses over time and it's very evident in its current facade. I'll pass it back to Katherine to talk a little bit more about our proposed design and share the video.

Okay, as that starts here, one moment. Okay, here you can see the proposed building, the materials which include a predominantly brick and glazing or glass to create a warm and inviting facade. The upper portion you can see up here is a clear story roof which will bring natural daylight deeper into the building. One of our key design concepts is connecting the building users to nature. So we've incorporated this through the clear story roof to bring daylight deep into the space, the internal courtyard like we had mentioned, and just large expanses of glass, all of which bring light and views of the outdoors into the space. Another important design concept is creating a building that feels permanent and enduring. We're doing this through the use of durable, lasting materials while also responding to the character of downtown Longmont, which we appreciate and love. The existing brick buildings throughout downtown are such an important part of what gives our community its character. We wanted to echo that quality in this project and create a building that feels durable, timeless, and designed to serve the community for many years to come. I'll let Lexi speak a little bit more to some items here.

So one thing Recovery Cafe first shared with us when we met them was their five values, and they've really stuck with me. Their radical hospitality, loving accountability, champion for recovery, stewardship, and inclusive community. We've worked really hard to ensure the building reflects these principles with what we feel is a warm, welcoming, inclusive space responsibly designed with the community in mind. We'll leave you guys with just one more slide before we pass to Chris, just sharing the excitement and the improvements that we're aiming to bring to this corner of Maine. With that, I'll pass it over, and we'll let Chris chat a bit deeper and answer some questions about who Recovery Cafe is and what the organization has to offer.

Thank you. Thank you.

Hello and good evening, commissioners, and thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight. My name is Chris Poma and I'm the Director of Programs at Recovery Cafe Longmont, and I'm here to ask for your support in approving our new location and helping us to continue serving the Longmont community. I want to be very clear about what Recovery Cafe is and what we are not. We are not a drop-in center for the unhoused. We are a recovery community built around connection, accountability, and personal growth. When someone becomes a member of Recovery Cafe, they make three commitments. One, to be sober while at Recovery Cafe. Two, to give back to the community. And three, to participate in a weekly recovery circle. These aren't just words, they're the foundation of how our community operates. In 2025, we had 795 active members throughout the year who made and upheld these commitments. These are Longmont residents who are working to achieve gainful employment, heal their family relationships, and be socially responsible citizens of the Longmont community. Our impact also extends beyond our members. We partner with community organizations, including the LEAD program, Probation, Our Center, Hope, and many, many others to connect people with resources and support. One example is our women's empowerment group, which we offer in partnership with probation. This group has achieved a 60% success rate, that's a graduation rate, compared to the Colorado average of 30. These partnerships demonstrate how Recovery Cafe can bring community resources together to help Longmont build healthier and more stable lives. sorry, Longmont residents build healthier and more stable lives. Our increased space will allow us to serve more people, provide greater accessibility, and create a space where recovery, connection, and community can thrive, lowering recidivism and relapse rates. We believe Recovery Cafe makes Longmont stronger, safer, and more connected, and we respectfully ask for your support. And I'm happy to answer any questions you may have about Recovery Cafe programming.

OK, thank you very much. At this time, if you don't mind, we are going to go ahead. This is a public hearing item, so we are going to go ahead and open up for public invited to be heard. If there's anybody in the public who would like to come forward and speak for this or on this item, nobody signed up on the list, but we still give you a chance to come forward. So we just ask that I remind you that you have five minutes and that you give your name and address for the record, please. I think we have somebody.

And I was just going to introduce myself. I'm new to the role as the executive director, and I'm Dr. Waltrina de France Dufour. Thank you. Thank you.

So I'm Jim Geller and this is my wife Yeti Ploy. We own 800 Kaufman which is directly to the west of this property. While we support this project, we do still have some serious questions that need to be addressed, I think. One, in looking at the illustrations, the alley, which is not an alley, it's a utility easement, is used by countless trucks on a daily basis between EcoCycle, Western Disposal, Longmont, They are in and out of that alley, UPS, FedEx, William, the paint store. And from the illustrations, you're creating a situation that very tight between the edge of their property and where those parking spots are extending into their right of use area and where that utility pole is. I don't know if that You know, somebody's going to have an issue with that at some point if it hasn't already been addressed, because these are just simple illustrations, but the actual practical part is that that is a tight area, and our property line extends right to that. And as we foresee, with only eight parking spots available at this location and hundreds and hundreds of people participating, there will be a parking issue. Granted, parking is not something that we can control anymore. You're going to say you can use the RTD Park and Ride over on 800 Coffman and the other side. We have a parking lot now that we deal with every day almost with people parking there illegally. We foresee this continuing because it's an easy place to park and dump your car and go somewhere else. Currently there is a pickup truck that was parked in the alley today, still there, right on the line from who knows who. I'm not really quite sure where it's from. The other question, I mean having talked to Matt about this the other day, Downtown Longmont kind of extends from 1st to 9th on Main Street, and that is the downtown business district. And we just are curious as to this location for this purpose, while the city has given them grant money to open a cafe next to our business. There are also three other cafes within our area. Matt has assured me that there is no retail aspect to this today, but Management changes. There's a new director. The original director is no longer with them. Chris might move on at some point. Matt might move on. What are our assurances that this isn't going to turn into a retail business sponsored by the city of Longmont or Boulder County, wherever the money came from, against us and the other businesses in our neighborhood? That is, and it hasn't... Somehow... Getting someone's verbal assurance is one thing. Having it actually be realistic is another. And that's kind of a little troubling for us. We're older. This may not happen while we're around, but it will for someone else, or for the new business that's opening up where Cooper Winery was on Longs Peak, and all the other businesses. If they compete with us, That's fine as a retail business, but if the city grants them money to purchase this location, that could be a problem, as I see it, unless somebody answers it and has a better answer for it. I understand why the money was donated as to the good that comes from it outweighs the other, but we have real concerns as an ongoing business.

We've already had people call us and ask us where the Recovery Cafe is. Yeah. We're like, you can get coffee here. But my question is, you guys probably don't plan on opening before 10 o'clock in the morning.

Is that correct? Well, no. The other issues... like you say you're gonna have it available for other uses well what are those other uses how are they gonna impact the neighbor that are there currently an unknown variety of uses is one thing but the uncertainty I don't know it'd be nice to have assurances that that we're in a safe spot. We currently, just to give you an idea, in the last week we've probably had the police out three or four different times for different situations with dealing with the unhoused and people sleeping on our property or abandoning a vehicle on our property, blocking our parking lot. I don't know, 10 days ago I believe there was a wild party in our alley behind us sponsored by a different business. with drug use, and we're still addressing all of these different issues. So hopefully you take some of these things into consideration and ask some of the tough questions. Really, if the city is sponsoring the purchase of a building that competes with existing businesses, that's a problem.

OK, your five minutes are up. Thank you very much, Hull. Thank you for your comments. Anybody else from this? Yes, please come forward. Once again, state your name and address for the record.

Sure. Good evening. Matt McKinney, 1266 Longs Peak Avenue here in Longmont. I'm here kind of wearing two hats. I am on the board of directors of Recovery Cafe and have been for about 18 months. And I live at 1266 Longs Peak, which is just west of Roosevelt. And I'm here to state on the record the best espresso in town is theirs. So big fans of Cafe Luna. And I'm not going to address, my role is not to answer any of their concerns. I'll leave that for staff. But I'm here in support, both because I believe in the mission, having a safe place for folks in recovery in Longmont is a valuable resource. I think the effort to move out of necessity as our programs and membership outgrows our current location is important. And I think there's an element of pride in North Main. I think from the renderings as I look at what we want to do here, I think this will be a project that could really catalyze the next evolution of Main Street as the town continues to evolve. So, the support is both very personal with regard to the mission, but also as a neighbor and a citizen here, I think this is going to continue to add to Longmont's great progress. I do have one, I guess, personal comment on the accessibility and the programming. positive of our model, Recovery Cafe's model, is the volunteer piece. My mother is a volunteer. My mother has had a hip and a knee done. So the accessibility going down those stairs is a dicey proposition every time she shows up to volunteer. So I've had conversations with her just about the realities of accessibility. So I just don't want that to be viewed as window dressing. That is all I have. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Seeing nobody else coming up, I'll go ahead and close out public invited to be heard. We'll go ahead to move to comments and questions, motions from the commission. Commissioner Edgley-Wells. Nope. Commissioner Boone.

Am I up? Yep. Nope.

Nope. Not anymore. I think you're up.

Okay. Thank you, Chair Polin. I just have one question to the recovery people. You mentioned 795 members. So in order to use your facility, do people have to join up, their members? So this is not a drop-in facility for anybody? Is that correct?

Yeah, that's correct. So our model right now is you come in, you be a guest, you get a tour of the facility. We have one hour when we first open and an hour at the end of the day where they'll come in, get their tour, learn about our membership model, and then they return a second time, sign up for membership, choose their recovery circle, and then they can become a member.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome. Okay, we'll go ahead and move to Commissioner Edgley-Wells.

Thank you, Chair. My question was for Catherine. So in the neighborhood, oh, I'll wait till you get up there.

I'm just going to sit there.

Yes. Hi. Thank you so much for being here. So my question, in the neighborhood meeting, you did address that utility easement, that 10-foot, I believe, utility easement. There was community concern about accessibility of other businesses to that easement. And I believe you said that you all would be managing that 10-foot easement area.

That is part of the scope of work. I mean, so the new asphalt is all a part of that. Is that what you mean by managing?

Well, that's kind of my question of what does that actually mean of management? Like, if there's somebody that shouldn't be using that area, would you all be the ones to post signs? Or, like, I'm just trying to figure out how... there seems to be concern over the use of that area. And I remember in that meeting you saying this easement area would be managed by this property. So I'm wondering what that entails and what that means.

Sure. I mean, I think as, you know, speaking for Recovery Cafe as well, I mean, I think we're open to what would make sense if the commissioners have recommendations, if Phil has recommendations on what that looks like and, you know, we can talk about it. as a team, but we're here to make sure that it's not an access easement. It is a utility easement, but to keep that maintained. And then if there is issues with transient, we could talk about that as a team and what that means. So yeah, we're happy to address that and put more definition to it if that would be helpful.

Yes, thank you so much. Okay, and then I had another question. So this was addressed in the traffic letter attachment 13. And it's more of like a multimodal traffic and sort of safety question. I don't know who I address that to.

Oh, staff in general.

Staff, OK. Staff in general. So my question is, in this letter, it says that the site is located on the northwest corner of 8th Street and Main. And then there's a transit stop east side of Main Street directly across the site, serviced by RTD Route 324, and that there is no sidewalk. So it's stating that pedestrians will generally wait for gaps in traffic. to cross main street and i'm wondering um how we if that is should i mean i find that to be a traffic safety concern and how that could potentially be addressed i literally read that in the letter and was like not waiting for gaps in traffic um so that is my question ideas on how to address that phil or somebody else from city would you like to come forward i think phil's coming

I can certainly try.

Give me one second.

We will work on getting an answer. Staff are conferring. Okay, thank you. Give us one second. Thank you. Do we have any other questions when we look up this one?

I'm done. That was it. But thank you so much. Thank you. We'll get an answer to you.

We'll come back to that question. Commissioner Arment.

I also have a traffic question. So in the conditional use site plan, I noticed that along a, you're moving the current, and I don't know how to describe this, but you're basically, in front of the parking, you're adding a 17-foot spacing to a solid white line. And then you're also moving the double yellow. And I'm not sure what the function of that white line is. Because that doesn't seem to be parking, since there's already parking behind it.

Good evening, Chair and Commissioners. Josh Sherman, Civil Engineer with Public Works. The intent behind some of the revised striping is a couple of thoughts. One is there is head-in parking here along the public right-of-way. All the parking that you see that's head-in on this block is in the public right-of-way. One of the goals was trying to create a little bit of a buffer. for folks that are pulling in and out of that parking. This is 90 degree angled parking in front of this particular subject property. In fact, if you look a little bit west, it's angled. So that gives a little bit of a buffer to remove a little bit of that conflict point between pulling in and out of those parking stalls with the through traffic. And then additionally, one of the modifications that were made to that head end parking was to eliminate some of the spaces or one of the spaces that was closer to Main Street there on the 8th Avenue side to allow for a little better sight distance. And they've been able to, I believe, put a landscape aisle in there and soften that corner a little bit. But channelizing that turning movement also provides some of that better sight distance.

OK. OK. So that's just about giving access to the head end. That makes sense. The other question I had was on the, I guess that's currently a utility easement, but it was mentioned that garbage trucks and other such things are using that. I don't know what the plan is going forward, if there's still going to be enough room for garbage trucks.

So I was in the back looking at the ALT survey that was submitted with this application, which may not be in your packet, but is the existing conditions survey for that property. There is a 10-foot access easement adjacent to the back property line of the subject property. I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me if there's a reciprocal 10-foot easement on the other side of the property line, which gives you that 20-foot access, which would be the width of an alley.

Okay. Yeah, I just... I'm not seeing that on the drawings there, and also there's utility poles in the utility easement.

There are also certainly utilities both buried and overhead in that same corridor.

Okay. Yep. So I guess if there is an access easement, any future development would still have to allow that room for a trash truck and whatnot to still maintain.

Any other public access.

Okay. I think that's all I had. Thank you. You're welcome.

Thank you. Commissioner Boone.

Thank you, Chair. I have thought of one more question. And this is in response to a concern of the owners of Luna Cafe. And they expressed concern that they may not be granted a desired liquor license because of the proximity to this use. So I guess my question is going to fill and or grant Is that the case? I would hate to limit their use by changing this use.

Thank you for the question. There is no relation. If this conditional use is approved this evening, that does not affect the Cafe Luna's desire to get a liquor license.

Okay, so they would still be able to do so?

Correct.

There's not a required so many foot buffer? There's not, no. Okay. That's all I had. Thank you.

Vice Chair Earle. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do not want to beat a dead horse here, but I want to understand the, I guess, utility easement, both the kind of what it is technically and how it's used now. Because when I look at the... I unfortunately can't have a member of the public come answer, so I'm limited to staff and the applicant. But I guess for staff, at least to start with, is this really an alley, like technically, legally, not how it's used, but legally, technically an alley?

Good evening again. I would answer that question by saying no, it is not a plotted public right-of-way. It is used as a public right-of-way. It is dedicated as a public access easement.

Okay. Is that a utility easement or a 10-foot public access easement? Sorry, if I'm using the right word there.

Right, and to distinguish, there would be a difference between an access easement and a utility easement, the use being access versus for utilities. What I see on the ALTA that I pulled up was recordation numbers for an access easement. That's not to say there might not be a utility easement there, I just didn't see it on the ALTA.

That's that 10-foot access easement on this property line. Correct. There you go. Yep. Okay. Understand we don't know what's on the other side. We know there's a utility pole in the middle, so it's not a continuous right-of-way.

I don't know. I believe you if you say the utility pole's on the middle. I don't know if it's on one property line or the other. Yeah.

Fair enough. Middle is probably not the technical term, but in that general area. Yes. Okay. Okay. If I'm understanding the site plan, the building addition also doesn't extend to that 10 foot easement.

Correct.

So there's still, I mean, I don't have a measurement on here, but I think there was a drawing.

It looks like another 20 feet. I think there was a drawing that showed there's a 25 foot setback from the building to the property line, which would mean there's a 15 foot setback from that 10 foot access easement to the face of the building.

Okay, thank you. And I think then a question for applicant architect, probably, is there any plan to use that space in the back? Or does that kind of remain, you know, not technically a public asset easement, but you know, effectively open? Okay. Um, if the answer was effectively open, um, for the recovery cafe folks, I just want to make sure I'm a hundred percent crystal clear. Um, and I think I know the answer to the question, but I'm going to ask it anyway, despite recovery cafe being named recovery cafe, is there a cafe onsite for the public? can you hit the button there?

No, there's not. Um, I think it's important to, to explain the, it's a national network and the cafe word is used really because members and staff are having a cup of coffee with each other and building community, hence the title cafe. And so it is, um, yeah.

Has there ever been any planned discussion about doing any public retail basically?

At this point, no. The focus is really to teach our members how to become baristas, and hopefully they'll go and get a job at Cafe Luna. I do want to acknowledge the concerns are serious and valid, and I respect that. But we are really trying to help people in recovery get the developmental skills that they need to have gainful employment again in the community.

And I appreciate the mission. I just want to make sure we're totally clear on that.

Yeah, the current process is people come in, we offer free coffee, a little coffee pot, and they get a cup of coffee and socialize with each other and talk about recovery and how to stay sober and live their life.

Okay.

Thank you.

Commissioner Jordan.

chair I got a couple questions I'm gonna continue the beating of the horse here just because I have some other alleyway related questions so I see that in the plan we have an enclosure for the trash at the back which to me would imply our trucks would be backing up to access that I feel I don't know perhaps you could feel this and might have to defer to the applicant

That is correct. It's designed for trash tucks to use the alley, yes.

So the question I have, and I apologize, I've been trying my best on the conditional site plan to figure out, OK, how much actual room is there? Because I don't see any dimensions between the utility pole and the building. Maybe I'm just blind here, but basically because we are doing an extension, it limits this, let's call it a social alley right now because it's not an actual access easement.

It is an access easement, not a flat valley.

Right. But the point being is the positioning of the trash at the back implies a truck from the north or the south is backing into that area to access those trash cans. Now, because the building is extending westward, then it only leaves so much space to go either to the west or the east of that utility pole. So how much space is there between the utility pole and the building?

Okay. I hear we have actual dimensions for you. Please hold.

Okay. Okay. While we're waiting on that, I have a couple other questions. And this is more about some concerns about unhoused. Maybe this is a question for the applicant initially. I understand you're at 402 Kinbark today. How long have you been in that setting? Can you press the button, please?

So we've been at 402 since we opened in 2019.

Okay. And so what, I guess it's sort of a two-parter question. One is about the traffic kind of profile. What percentage of your members are driving, biking, taking the bus, walking, that kind of thing?

Yeah, that's a good question. Majority of our folks are taking public transit or walking. We do have a segment of members that do drive, I would say, you know, maybe 15%. And it's folks who live in the neighborhood, you know, so majority public transportation walking.

And I guess this is a question for both you and staff, because I'm not sure what we have documented here, but what has been the experience there in terms of police reports for transients or unhoused or any sort of crime as a result of local unhoused folks?

It's been very low, and we've mitigated a lot of that as well with things like cameras that come on at night, cameras there, being outside and walking around while we're open. As far as interactions with the unhoused, we haven't had a whole ton of those. We have had some where it's like using the core team for someone who may be having a mental health emergency on Kimbark Street. As far as in the cafe, in the six years I've been there, I think twice we've called CORE and they were able to come and help the situation.

Okay. Those were all the questions I had offhand. I don't know if staff had any, I don't know if we had any numbers on what their presence in the neighborhood has improved or reduced.

I would like to speak to that previous question. I think that the church would validate that the unhoused usually have nothing to do with the cafe. It's been historical of them coming to get food supplies or utilize services from the church, or they stay near the church because they feel safe. So it hasn't been affiliated with the cafe. As far as numbers, yes, our membership is around 795. However, we don't have that many people at one time. It's a very small number. I'd even say it's probably a little less than 15% that have vehicles. We're looking forward to COCO coming. So yeah, I think it's a very small. We have eight parking spaces that are granted to us to use first come, first serve in the church space. And none of those are usually utilized by any of our members. It's usually staff.

All right. I mean, in the traffic study, it did suggest that it didn't meet the thresholds to typically warrant a traffic study. And I figure given your programming, you would have a higher proportion of pedestrian access. So thank you. I'm hoping that might have given staff or sorry, the architect here. Thank you. So can we talk dimensions?

Sorry, yes, thank you for your patience. Okay, so the rear setback is approximately 28 feet 8 So from the rear property line to the building is 28 feet 8 inches Then from the utility pole to the building is 19 feet approximately 6 inches

So there would still be access for a garbage truck to back up on, let's just say, your side of the pole, as it were, to access those trash cans and whatnot?

That's correct. Yes. And the easement, the pole is within that. Also, that easement has a lot of utilities running through it, so it is an access and utility easement, so thanks for the clarification on that. But yeah, there's a fair amount of room from the pole to our building, yes.

And I apologize, I can't find the renderings that you had in our packet. But on that side with the trash, was that additional parking along the back? No.

Yeah, I did want to clarify that. There are no proposed parking on our site. It's only the head-in parking.

OK. Those were all my questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Phil, I have a couple of questions. See if I can remember them. First, so it's been mentioned about the trash pickup using the easement area. Do the other establishments in that area also use the alley for, let's say, trash pickup?

Yes.

Okay, so it isn't just this one, it's other uses? Yes, I think it's all, yeah, several properties. Okay, very good. Second of all, to clarify, so we have been asked to approve a conditional site plan, and the site plan is basically taking an existing retail shop, which looks like some kind of resale shop.

Yes.

They are going to do some modifications to it, and the use is going to change from, let's say, a public resale lot store to a community service. And it's because it's a community service that's coming before us. If it had been another resale lot or even a cafe, it wouldn't have come before us then.

Correct. Okay. I just want to make that clarification. Thank you very much.

That's my questions. we have any other questions i think we're still waiting comment on commissioner edgley wells question

We'll see if technology works here. Hopefully, as I fumble through this, someone will kick me if I'm incorrect. But it appears, looking up Route 324 that was referenced in the traffic study, that route has actually been modified. So looking at the route map, you can see that it does traverse along Main Street, but then does head west over to Kaufman between 9th down to 3rd. And so the connection that would be closest from a pedestrian access, and I apologize, north is to the right on this exhibit, essentially with the new Kauffman Street improvements, there will be a pedestrian crossing on the south side of 8th. So this is the subject site. Kauffman is at the top of the screen and Main Street is to the south. just to orient i don't know if that answers the question but again the route has been modified since that last traffic study thank you commissioner edgley wells

Thank you, Chair. I believe I read in that report it's about roughly 900 feet is the, I guess, amount of feet that it would take for somebody to actually be able to access Recovery Cafe from the nearest safe access point. So I just wanted to make sure that that's what I was reviewing there. Is that like a couple of blocks?

Yeah.

Sorry, Commissioner. Yeah, for context, essentially between Main Street and Kauffman is one block. So just to the south of that, there would be a pedestrian crossing. Thank you so much.

Commissioner Arment. I had one other question for staff. Because it was brought up that they are having no parking on site. And I wondered how that interacted with bike parkings. Is there also no requirement for bike parking? And I didn't see any bike parking proposed, so.

There are bicycle locks, U-lock style, along Main Street. OK. They're on the site plan, yes.

OK. So the plan is just to have them park on Main Street. That makes sense.

OK. Thank you.

Council Rep Popkin. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Commission, for the good comments here and the clarifying questions. I had one more that I don't believe was addressed. I was just curious with this back alley if there has been emergency vehicle access discussed, needed, and what kind of those parameters would be between fire, police, public safety in different ways.

Thank you for the question. There was not extensive discussion about it because from our perspective, the alley is going to operate as it operates today. So any access that currently exists that is suitable for emergency services will remain. Okay, thank you for that.

And then maybe a question for our city attorney and legal representative here. So there was a discussion about the use of the land, like the use of the property and the land going forward. And I know the applicant spoke to this already. Um, I just want to ask, there've been multiple public funding contributions to this. Am I correct on that?

That appears to be correct.

And I think that's and maybe the applicant correct me if I'm wrong. I think it's city, county and federal that are contributing to this in some way or federal pass through that are contributing to this in some way, shape or form. Is that correct?

It looks like it's a federal pass-through through the city funding, yes. And I'm not sure where the county's funding, if that's just county or if that's federal as well.

Sure. And how long is the county agreement for, since I know we were messaging about that?

I looked at the term, and it's 99 years.

Thank you. And I believe one of the stipulations in that, and apologies, this I don't think was in the commission packet, but just given some of the questions and the land use relevance, I want to just ask these on the record. Okay. I believe Section 7D of that speaks to the use of funds and property specifically focused on the use of property solely in furtherance of the program that the agency is seeking to commit, right?

Yes, it does say that this is the use of worthy cause funds. The agency, meaning recovery cafe will be the sole occupant of the property and will use the property solely in furtherance of the program. And then, you know, it does have some permission for the agency to allow occupancy by other sort of affiliated groups.

Great. Do those other affiliates include for-profit leases or other types of sales?

It does not. So it provides the occupancy by another entity, has to be a 501c3 nonprofit organization, and provides human services consistent with the agency's mission. So it would have to meet both criteria.

Great. Thank you very much. And again, apologies, Chair, that that was not in the packet, but I figured I'd add that into the record.

Thank you. I'm just going to say right now that I am for this. I understand that there were some concerns by the Luna Cafe. I think that the fact that you had an existing retail property by you, that it's actually becoming a community service instead. I think actually that should give you some relief that there's not going to be a cafe put over there that's directly going to compete. So I really don't see a problem with the fact that we're taking an existing retail shop, replacing it with community service. I think that is a good use for the conditional use for this. And I will be for this development looking forward for any other comments from the commission. Comments, questions, and or motions? Don't be shy. Commissioner Boone.

Thank you, Chair. I will go ahead and make a motion. Move to approve the Recovery Cafe Conditional Use Site Plan based on the findings of the staff report and the evidence presented at the hearing.

Thank you. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Vice Chair Earle.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will second the motion.

We have a motion. We have a second. Any other comments? I will say that I do find that this supports 1502055 of the Land Development Code, and that is another reason why I will be in support of this. Seeing no other comments, let's take a vote.

Commissioner Edgeley-Wells? Yes. Commissioner Arment?

Yes.

Vice Chair Earle? Aye. Chair Polin? Yes. Commissioner Saunders? Yes. Commissioner Boone? Yes. Commissioner Jordan?

Yes.

Chair, that passes unanimously 7-0.

Thank you very much. This item now enters a seven-day appeal period. During this time, any agreed party may appeal the commission's decision by submitting a written appeal letter stating why the planning zoning commission's decision should be amended or reversed by city council. All appeals must be in writing and must be received in the city clerk's office and the planning office within the seven-day appeal period. The appeal period begins Thursday, August 20th at 8 a.m. and ends Wednesday, August 26th at 5 p.m. I want to thank the public, the applicant, and staff for the presentations on this. Next is final call, public invited to be heard. This is an opportunity for the public to comment on things that were not on our agenda today or are not going to be coming before us as quasi-judicial items. Seeing nobody come forward, items from the commission. No items from the commission. Items from Council Representative Popkin.

Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to give you all an update in case you didn't stay up until 11.45 p.m. to watch our review of the appeal for the variance requests that came through and was appealed from PNC. Again, as a reminder, you can find this recording, I think this was last Tuesday at this point. In short, the council upheld PNC's decision on that six to one. Again, our decision on that was more in an appellate procedural function. And so our decision was supposed to be whether planning and zoning commission erred in its decision. So a six to one finding means you did not, or we did not find that you did. So just wanted to thank you all for your time. service on that topic and for just the thoughtful range of different conditions and the conditional approvals for multiple items that came through on that application. They only appealed on one of those items. And so happy to share more. That's also recorded if you want to watch that discussion. I just wanted to report back. Which I did. Hopefully not live. Also hopefully not live. So I did just want to note that. Also, as I know some of you ask about transportation updates once in a while. I think it was the last Transportation Advisory Board meeting two weeks ago. There were multiple discussions about upcoming projects that are happening around different intersections in the community. Just wanted to flag that in case you wanted to take a look at some of the multimodal aspects or road connections agnostic of any project specifically. You can listen to that or you can ask me directly if you have questions about those. I won't go through the litany of those because we actually have quite a few different construction projects and transportation projects that are actively happening right now. I think that is all I have for everyone. Thank you very much. Thank you. I lied. I did have one more update. This is not City Council exactly. This is the Longmont Urban Renewal Authority. At your last meeting, you considered an update to the urban renewal plan. Thank you for reviewing that. Just last night, the Longmont Urban Renewal Authority approved one amendment and three tax increment financing agreements that are in service of the first and main transit stations. So thank you for continuing to review some of those plans as they come to you all as part of that journey that those projects go through.

Okay, thank you. Items from Planning Director Grant Pendlin.

Just a couple updates. Looking ahead in September, it looks like we will have a setback variance on the 16th meeting. And tentatively right now, we do have for the special meeting, due to notice requirements, that'll be the September 23rd, a conditional use site plan. It's still a little bit TBD, but that's what we're looking at for September. And then I also just wanted to update the commission that As referenced, I think, at the last meeting or the prior meeting, after the dissolution of the Board of Adjustment, staff's intent is to update the standard reports so that we are consistent in all variance types. So we will be providing kind of the full analysis and recommendation. So don't be surprised when you see that at the next meeting that includes a variant.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

We are in adjournment.