City Council - Regular Meeting

We can switch. Yeah, feel free. Okay, it's 5:00. Okay, it's 5 o'clock, so we will get started. Welcome everyone. Um, you look outside, you will actually see some white stuff. coming down, which is always nice. But welcome to our city of Steamboat Springs regular meeting number 2026-06, Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. And Julie, could you do roll call, please? Steve Montine here. Gilgar is absent. John Aosta and Dave Barnes are absent. Michael Bacino

here. Amy Dixon here. Brian Swintch. Okay, let's rise for the pledge of allegiance. There's a flag in the back and one right up front here. I pledge allegiance to the flag, United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. So, to start tonight, we are going to adjourn from our regular meeting and reconvene as the liquor license authority. So could I have a motion to do that please? So moved. Second. Okay. We have a motion by councelor Swinteek, second by councelor Brino. All in favor say I.

I. I.

Opposed. Okay. So we are now in our liquor license authority. And we have three things on our liquor license agenda tonight. Um so the first piece of business is our liquor license authority consent calendar tonight. And we want to on the consent calendar, we have one item. It is to set a hearing date and designate a neighborhood for a new hotel and restaurant license for Loco Taco Mexican Grill LLC doing business as Loco Taco Mexican Grill. So, is there anybody from council who wants to pull this item? Okay. Is there anybody in the audience who'd like to pull this item? or anybody online, please raise your hand if you'd like to pull this item. Seeing none, I will ask for a motion.

So moved. Second. Okay. So, we have a motion from councelor Swintech, a second by councelor Pacino, and we are going to um the motion is to designate the neighborhood as the West Steamboat area and set a hearing date of April 7th, 2026 for the new hotel and restaurant license for Loco Taco Mexican Grill LLC. All those in favor? I

I opposed. Okay, that passes 4. We'll move on to our second item on the agenda, and that's the request for a new beer and wine liquor license application by Elk River Bagels Westside LLC, doing business as Westside Market and Delhi. Okay. This is a public hearing before the liquor license authority of the city of Steamboat Springs to determine whether or not the application of Elk River Bagels Westside LLC to be located at 2851 Riverside Plaza units 230 and 210-B Steamboat Springs, Colorado for a beer and wine liquor license should be granted or denied. This hearing is conducted conducted pursuant to the laws of the state of Colorado and the rules of the liquor license authority of the city of Steamboat Springs. The purpose of this hearing is to receive information, data, and testimony by interested parties in order to enable the city council to make findings and reach conclusions required to be made by state law as to whether or not the liquor license applied for should be issued. A record is being made of these proceedings so that those who desire to be heard must identify themselves by name and address. Interested parties are residents of the neighborhood under consideration or owners or managers of any business located in the neighborhood. The neighborhood has been preliminary preliminarily established as follows. The relevant neighborhood is West Steamboat. Any challenges to members of council conducting this hearing must be stated at the outset of the hearing. The burden is upon the applicant to satisfy the council that the reasonable requirements of the relevant neighborhood for the kind of license applied for are not presently being adequately satisfied. The burden is also upon the applicant to

show the council that he or she is a person of good moral character entitled entitled to hold a liquor license. Is the applicant ready to proceed? Okay. Please identify yourself for the record by giving your name and address. And you can come up here if you like. Yeah. Julia Goldman, 27250 Aspen Valley Lane, Steamboat Springs, Colorado 80487. Okay. Raise your right hand, Julia, please. Do you swear that the testimony you're about to give before the council is the truth? Yes. Okay. Do you wish to make a statement regarding your liquor license application?

No. Okay. Julie, does the city have any exhibits to introduce? Yes, we have exhibits A through G. All documents required by the Colorado Liquor Enforcement Division. Okay. Is there any objection to the omission of city exhibits A through G? Hearing none, city exhibits A through G will be admitted. Does the applicant have any exhibits to introduce? Um, just the one that you guys have as well, the petition with 37 signatures of customers and neighbors. Okay,

Council President Montine, I think I'm supposed to say that. Yes, they submitted a petition containing 37 signatures in support and that's exhibit D. Are there any objections to the admission of applicants? Exhibit D. Okay. Exhibit D shall be admitted. Are there any other interested parties who wish to be recognized? Okay. Are there any questions? Okay. At this time, the council may immediately make a decision, provide for public discussion of consideration of documents or testimony, or table this matter. Any motion to approve or deny must contain findings and conclusions. The city attorney has prepared an outline of findings to assist in a motion to approve or deny, which is in your agenda packet. What would council like to do?

I move to approve. Okay. Motion to approve. Second by motion by councelor Pacino. Second by councelor Dixon. Any discussion? Okay. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Okay. Motion passes 40. Congratulations. Good luck. Thanks. Make it happen. Okay. The third item for tonight is the approval of the minutes from November 18th, January 6th, and January 20th. Does anybody have any revisions from the minutes? If not, I'll take a motion to approve all three.

So moved. Second. Second. We have a motion from councelor Swinte, second from councelor Dixon. All those in favor say I. Opposed. Okay. Minutes are approved for zero. And now one more motion. We will adjourn. Hold on a minute. We will adjourn from our LLA meeting and reconvene in our regular city council meeting. Motion by councelor Pino. Second. Second by councelor Swintech. All those in favor? I

opposed. Okay, we are back to our regular council meeting. And next on the agenda is city council reports. Who has some reports for us? Yeah, go ahead. No, go ahead.

Um, just uh we had airport commission meeting last Thursday and um it was um it was interesting to go in here where we are as a community with the airport and the landings and right now we're still I mean everything's down about that 10%. Or a little less but um it's still looking somewhat promising with those tickets that have been booked. Um, if anyone doesn't know that Southwest and United have uh what do they call it when they they've loaded up until October. So, if you want to fly Southwest in or out of Steamboat or Hayden, excuse me, you can um start booking that because they have those on their their flights are actually loaded all the way till October. So, those things just out start planning your trips. And then I just wanted to throw out um the accident that happened uh the crash and the uh Emerald Mountain and it was um unfortunate that that happened that night. The weather was kind of like what it is now and we've seen it before. But uh I did talk to Josh and John Snider earlier uh today, but right now we're just in a holding pattern with the NTSB doing their research, doing their evaluation of what's going on up in the airport. Uh but it was an interesting topic that um we had at the airport commission only three hours prior to the crash was about the um approach into that airport is somewhat steep and it does have to go over that. Uh I talked to one of the commissioners is uh Steve Burch and we were talking about the flight is basically about 200 feet above the radio towers. So you can see there's not a lot of tolerance because then it affects the angle coming in and so we have already known that as a problem as a commission and we were talking about how we can uh appeal to the uh the FAA to change the approach

because we've obviously had two praying clashes in almost the exact same location. Uh so we need to kind of identify what's going on there. But just let everyone know nothing there's we don't know what's going on. We're just we just know that there's a challenge and um we feel bad for the families, the Stokes and their friends. Yeah. So that's it. Thank you, Councelor Schwinte.

Um I attended a chamber board meeting. FYI, they are looking for a community impact member on the board. So the board is largely made up of business owners. They're looking for a little bit of diversity and thought. This is somebody who has a pulse on the community, what's going on, housing issues, living in steamboat, that kind of thing. So, if you know personally of any leaders who would bring in that community impact voice, feel free to email Sarah Leonard or me and I'm happy to pass that name along or if you're interested, you can reach out. Um they chamber went over their overall strategic initiative and their goals um evolving their organization, developing the business in town, maintaining financial health and then also building up destination stewardship. Uh we got a presentation from um Tim Olganot at the community foundation about just the overall health of nonprofits in town. uh funding has been very uh unreliable and private dinners have stepped in but it's created a lot of unreliability difficulty planning and nonprofits really having a tough time on all fronts employees providing the need necessary services and one question I did ask which I think is something for us to think about as uh council members is uh we have lived in a world where a lot of funding comes from the federal level that funding has become somewhat unreliable and at some point local leaders need to decide if we locally want to begin funding some of these social safety net programs, elder care, child care. These are some decisions that maybe our council doesn't need to, but we may uh very soon need to decide if the community is interested in starting to fund this uh because private donors cannot step in forever to fill the gap. What do you think is the process of finding out, you know, what programs

that are going to be cut that we can maybe support or prop up? That is part of the difficulty is it's totally unreliable. The spigot turns on and off and there is no rhyme or reason. And so we as a community really I think it's more thinking of what is it that the community needs and what are we what do we want to focus our funding on rather than responding because that's what is creating it making a very difficult environment for nonprofits to function in. Funding stops it then starts again it stops. It's just it creates a very unstable environment. Something to mle over.

Yeah. No seriously. Anything from you, councelor Dixon?

Um, so we had a meeting on February 5th, but I feel like we talked about it a little bit our last work session. I don't remember why, but it came up. But anyway, so um continued conversation around geothermal um and lots of work going on. We don't have any um answers um yet, but that work is still continuing. Um and obviously the consolidated shuttle network is also still um continuing. Um and then I um was at the um RI Yampampa River Fund board meeting last Friday. So I took um Dakota's spot on that board. Um and I'm not sure if everyone does everyone know what that fund is for. I know it's really cool.

Why don't you review that? Enlighten me. Let me tell you in two sentences. So, um it was started in 2019 and really the purpose is um it set up an endowment um with the community foundation um and it's used to provide a sustainable annual funding source to projects that benefit the Yampa River. And so folks can apply for funding um for restoration work. I mean, all sorts of work and um not just Yamp as it flows through steam, but we're talking west and um more south. So, it's really um great work and really smart folks that are on that board. Um and really committed committed to um the river's health um and also tying into agricultural um importance as well. Um we talk about the river. So, not a surprise. um a big concern was um the lack of snowfall and what that's going to do to the wi the river flow um this coming spring and summer. So that was a big part of the conversation. So

thanks a question on the URA. I know that we had talked um the last time they were we convened as the SSR, but um as you go forward next at that meeting, you know, we talked about what other things that we can do like on remember the smaller projects. Yep. And it kind of kind of bring I don't I know we we kind of landed on wanting to know what we can do. Yeah. So, um hopefully Gates and then we'll kind of tidy that up or at least find out. That came up. Oh, it did.

Thank you. Yes. So we have an SSR a meeting I think in March um where um they gates will be coming back and talking about the projects um because there was some discussion I think at our last SSR m SSR meeting we directed Gates to go back and spend um and find the smaller projects. Well, one of the projects um they're not sure if it's um something we should do right now or wait. I think I don't want but and so I think Gase is going to come back and talk to us about this. Um while they understand wanting to spend the money, they want to be really strategic about it and make sure it makes sense um as we're looking at the larger GTC.

Okay. So, that will come up in March. Thank you.

Okay. Uh couple quick things. Um we had a meeting with the local marketing district which uh funds our airport service and um we discussed about u potential of expanding the district. Um I don't know if you're aware that the district is really relatively small around the base of the mountain. It was established over 20 years ago and now there's a lot of hotels and whatnot that are not in the district and don't pay the tax. So, we're going to have a work session on that come I think in June to talk more specifically about we might what we might be able to do to expand the LMD district. And the second thing is uh we had a Y Valley Housing Authority board meeting last week and um I sent everybody this uh inspection report from Mission Rock and OPG. I don't know if you had a chance to look at it, but it's this app that you go in and and you can fill it out and you can take pictures and everything else. So, they're going to be doing that, I believe, every other week for a while and certainly once a month ongoing. And, uh, Elliot, uh, provided that information last time. So, uh, it looked it looked pretty good. So, they've made some more progress there. Um, the other thing I wanted to mention is to councelor Swint's point about, um, health care, home health, seniors, all of child care, all of this. Um, and I think we've had discussions, Tom, a little bit about putting that on as a work session topic or community report or something. And I think um, this just adds more credence to to doing that. And um, so when we go through the work session piece here, maybe we can target some time that we could get in some of the leaders from um, Northwest Colorado Health, the Health Partnership, and those kind of entities, Council on Aging, or SOARE now, I guess, is what it's called. Um, maybe we can do that. and and and on that Amy, this is your job. I mean, so you can bring a lot of personal experience, expertise in this.

Yeah. Right. So, you know exactly what he's talking about. Yep. Okay. I'm glad you're in this role. Well, thanks.

Okay. Anything else on that? Okay. If not, we'll move on and we'll look at our uh agenda review. And if you will turn to the March 3rd meeting, you will see that on March 3rd, um what we have going is Kim is going to be giving us in a staff report an update on the financial situation in town and u I think we'll have at least preliminarily or or I'm not sure if it's final January sales tax, but uh some good numbers on that and then Kim will give us her crystal ball look into the future and see where we stand. So, we'll have that next week. We're also going to review the final draft of the city council goals next week. And um I'm sorry, what?

Two weeks.

Two weeks. Yeah, in two weeks. And then you can see we have uh we're going to be looking at the wildfire code again uh to adopt that in the first ordinance as well as looking at the C dot properties and having the first reading of those ordinances as well. Um, the other thing I wanted to mention is that there's going to be a meeting, um, we're calling it up to this point a governance meeting on Brown Ranch, but they're having an initial meeting on moving Brown Ranch forward. And hopefully at that March 3rd meeting, we'll get a readout of that initial meeting and what they are proposing or what uh direction they may want to go there. And we're also looking at a constraint and capacity analysis of the Brown Ranch situation to really figure out exactly what we can do uh moving forward giving the constraints around um possibly water and utilities and other things. So uh we may touch on both of those on March 3rd as well.

President Montine, I just want to mention there there actually are two meetings. Um so the governance meetings the first meeting is um the 24th the second meeting is the 25th. So there will be two meetings in a row that we will try to get a um sort of a report or minutes or summary of that of the of those two meetings for the third and I still need to check to see whether we can get a a capacity constraints discussion on the third. So that's that's TBD.

Okay. And then we also have an executive session and you can see it's regarding uh Slate Creek parcel. Next meeting is March 10th. If you'll look at that particular meeting, we have a work session and you can see we're going to be talking about three different things there. uh the Colorado Mountain Community ballot measure observations and trends which is a very long title but uh some of us went to cast a couple weeks ago and we had a nice presentation from uh David Flaherti on from Mellan Strategies and we really want to get everybody up to speed on what he talked about for mountain communities ballot initiatives uh etc and trends in voters uh how they vote and whatnot. So we'll be doing that. We'll also get an update on um the business improvement district um and see if we want to resuscitate that and we'll have uh some more discussion about physical sustainability and what direction we want to go there. Okay, we good. Agenda on March 17th on that agenda we will be talking about inclusionary zoning and linkage fees. So that's a big piece of that. And then we also will be having an executive session for the city manager's employee evaluation. So we'll be doing that and you could see we also have a second reading on the wildfire um code as well as second reading on the C do properties. And then on April 7th, we will be having um a discussion on you can see there's a couple ordinance on on uh waste volume pricing, landscape code amendments, and we'll also be having an executive session for the city attorney's performance evaluation um at that point in time.

And then if you go to the next page which uh is the work session update uh which has been populated now and you can look and see what work sessions are on the schedule moving forward. Some are uh have openings and uh so we should talk about at some point in time uh which ones that aren't on this list that interest you that we may want to consider for additional topics such as um healthc care, child care um and all of that. But you can see that in March u March 10th we talked about that one. Um in April we're going to talk about the fire district consolidation. Um May in May we're going to talk about transit um the local production requirement on marijuana and the emergency operations plan um as we get into wildfire season. And you can see some of the others uh local marketing district in June along with um urban growth boundary and then uh I won't read through all of those but um you can see what else we have. So, if you have others um that we want to put on there, um bring them to our attention. Any questions on that? No. Okay. Well, then we'll move ahead and we will go to Tom for the city manager report.

Okay. Thank you, President Montine. And just a reminder that tonight's city manager report can be found on the city's website, steamboatsprings.net. If you just scroll down, you can see a tab for city manager report. Tonight's report as well as all the previous reports are on there. Um, starting off with public works. Um, and I always like to start off with kudos. So, we're going to give kudos to um a Steamboat Springs Transit driver, uh, John J. Cox. Um, John began driving for the Steamboat Springs Transit in October of 2009. He has been a returning winter seasonal driver since then and has also helped in the summer when staffing was tight and for special events like Fourth of July. John recently passed the 18,000 hour mark for driving a bus at SST. This marks the highest number of hours ever driven by a seasonal driver. So, uh, big kudos to John. We thank you for what you do. um you know experienced drivers is what uh enables SST to provide the increased levels of service winner after winner and perform at us extremely high level. So a big kudos to John U and the whole SST team. So thank you. Um a lot of information on sort of the airport activity. I'm not going to go into that. Um in engineering I did want to say that the final bid package for the West Steamboat Trail project has been completed. Um and the project is now being advertised so construction companies can submit their bids. Uh the bid opening is scheduled for March 12th and construction is expected to begin in May. So we know that's an important project and we're glad to see that moving forward. Um again in transit um sort of following a trend that we heard winter season wrership is down 11% compared to the same period last winter and year-to-year date um transit ridership is down 11%. So, this is uh not surprising given our slower uh winter season this year. Um and just wanted to acknowledge that that that affects transit as well. Although the

buses are still out there, they're still the same routes, the same um cadence. And so, um the wrership might be down um but um the service is still available. Uh water resources. Um, the Sonoron Institute awarded the city a growing water smart technical assistant grant of $10,000 toward developing a new stream corridor development standards. Um, council did provide direction back in October to move forward with this project to update the water body setback standards and the community development code. So, that is moving forward and we've got some technical assistance funding to help with that which is always nice. in planning um planning staff kicked off the design standards update project with a site visit by the consultants from code studio during the week of February 9th. Um we're very that's a project that's been on the list for a while so we're glad to see that moving forward. Um the city also received five responses to the passenger rail station study request for proposals and we're reviewing those proposals and uh we'll be making a selection um soon and we are working with Skiore on that um as a partner. Um as you all know uh the city must establish and implement a compliant expedited development review process for affordable housing um by January 1st, 2027 per the state requirements. Um we are um currently reviewing the state feedback on the city's existing policy and determining how to revise applicable policies as outlined in the CDC. Um the state of Colorado is offering incentives um to local jurisdictions that can demonstrate compliance by June of 2026. We're hoping to meet that deadline, although it it appears that the state guidelines may suggest expedited review applicability to building permits, which we don't currently have. And in that case, it'll take us a little bit longer and we probably wouldn't be eligible for those um funds for that incentive. Um in 2025, the city was awarded grant

funds from the Department of Local Affairs to develop several plans and associated documents to ensure the city is compliant with uh the SP24 174, which is the required housing and comp plan um elements. Um the SE group supported by EPS economic planning systems are under contract um and moving forward to create four required elements. Um and the city is moving forward with his consultants to revise the housing action plan, the city specific housing needs assessment, uh the city uh the strategic growth element and the water supply element. All of which are required by the state um now and we are in anticipating getting that done um as required by the end of this year. So planning part remains uh you know very busy with all of those essentially statemanded mandated projects. Um and we're moving forward with the consultant team information on all the development review applications uh planning commission actions and code enforcement in there. Moving on to parks and wreck. Um and we talked a little bit about this but I just want to highlight it again. Back in November, the parks and rec commission held a joint work session with police department, public works, route county riders to address the increasing ebike safety concerns. Uh Mark Beckett, police chief, highlighted enforcement challenges, explaining the legal limitations, difficulty measuring speeds, and complications involving juveniles um which make enforcement alone um insufficient. So to to address these issues, the commission formed a subcommittee to develop a coordinated strategy before the next cycling season, which is coming up, hopefully if it keeps snowing, not for a while. Uh the group has met twice in 2026 and is currently developing a plan to increase awareness and strengthen community partnerships. We did hear your comments last week about trying to probably increase some of those actions um a little bit more towards enforcement and taking a little bit more of a proactive approach. So that will be shared with that group. Um staff are continuing to pursue a few

remaining grant opportunities to support the funding strategy for the Slate Creek acquisition. Um the anticipated closing date for the 187 acre parcel is July and uh we'll meet with council to provide project status update and seek final direction regarding the remaining grant opportunities. Uh let's see in house ski and rodeo complex. Um, just a big kudos to the entire parks and wreck team, to the streets department, and to the police for a successful winter carnival week. Um, all the events ran smoothly. Uh, the celebration culminated with an outstanding night show with the drones and the fireworks. Um, so just a big kudos to that entire team for pulling that off. Uh, particularly with kind of the conditions that we had, the warm weather. Um, it went off really without a hitch. in the Alison Ice Arena. Um I just wanted to note that the Ice Arena is collaborating with Winter Wonder during the 3-day music event February 27th through March 1st. Um the arena will be offering a Winter Wonder public skate on Saturday, February 28th from 12:30 to 2:30. All festival attendees will have the opportunity to skate for $5, skate rentals included. So just another way to kind of um promote that um great great venue that we have. um information on Haymaker golf and youth programs. Um info on adult sports, including a reminder that believe it or not, all ath summer athletic program registrations will go live on civic wreck on March 2nd. And offerings will include three softball leagues, um volleyball leagues, and two tournaments. And also planning is underway to bring back the spring race river series, which was highly successful last year. staff is actively collaborating with friends of the Yampa to ensure this race uh series is fun, safe, and accessible for everyone interested in competitive river

racing in rafts, kayaks, and standup paddle boards. So, if you're interested in that, please reach out to parks and wreck. That completes the end of my report. Um, and before I take questions, I did I did want to let council know um that we will be making changes to this city manager report starting on uh March 17th will be the first one. Um the city manager report will be reformatted um and will be formatted and organized by our strategic plan outcome areas um and instead of by department. And the intent of that is really to better align kind of those actions that we're doing with the goals and the outcomes that we're trying to achieve. So there's a direct alignment. Um and we will also be taking the city manager report and creating essentially a um uh newsletter, an online newsletter that people can subscribe to and get the information automatically delivered to their inbox if they so choose. And really the intent is to make the information more accessible, make it more relevant, um, and, uh, hopefully improve, uh, how we communicate and connect with community. So, um, I will remind everybody again on March 3rd, but March 17th will be the first of that reformatted city manager report. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. Questions for Tom?

I have one quick question. Um the let's see here for the planning department um where the state came back and said we weren't compliant. Where was that? Yeah, that's the expedited expedited development review process for affordable housing. I know that well one I think is that was the question more of a comment that seems frustrating. Um

it was created actually before we knew that they were coming out with a requirement. So, we've had an expedited development review process for a while. We submitted it and said we have it and they said, "Well, it's not quite compliant with ours. So, we're going to review what would need to be done in order to to make it compliant." Um, hopefully it's not significant. Yeah. Is that Dola? Is that um you know, I'm not really sure that's through, but it doesn't matter. Okay. So, that was my kind of comment question. Then my other comment is I know you love advice on

you love advice. the city manager report. I love your your up what you're going to do to update it. Um when we think about getting it out to the public, um I see other towns. Um anyway, Instagram, you might have staff put it out on Instagram as well. Yep. Under the city. them. Yeah, we're hoping that having that subscription because we know that there's a fair amount of people that read it, but they have to go into our website, find it, pull it down, and read it. And this would automatically just deliver it to their inbox. So, we're hopeful that it makes it a little more accessible and easy to easy for people to get. So, well, we look forward to that. Yeah. March 17th.

March 17th.

Okay. All right. If there are no other questions for Tom, thank you. And we will move on in our agenda to general public comment. City council will make no decision or take action except to direct the city manager. Those addressing city council are requested to identify themselves by name and address and all comments should not exceed three minutes. And this is about anything that is not on the agenda for tonight. So is there anyone who has a general public comment in the audience here? And if so, would you come on down and state your name and address, please? Hello everybody. Uh, hello council. Uh my name is Ed Mum and with me is Steve Randall. We're with the Steamboat Springs or Ski uh Town Lions Club. Um we're here to see uh if you can help us with a project um the Lions Club would like to include at Little Tootses Playground and also uh Ski Towns Line Lions Park. As most of you are aware, in 2022, we contributed to the new playground with a yearly maintenance contribution of $1,000 as part of the centennial, our centennial uh celebrations. Um, our history at Little Tootses goes back a long time, highlighted by our famous Fourth of July pancake breakfast. Um, we're here today because recently Steamboat lost one of the town's iconic characters, Larry the Camel, who was recently and sadly killed

by lightning uh this last um uh fall. For a couple of decades, Larry was a regular favorite at the Fourth of July parade. He visited schools, rest homes. It was just generally just generally made people happy wherever he went. Um after he died, um the owner Bethany Orin, who some of you might know, uh received 5,000 letters, cards, and emails of of sympathy with his passing. Larry's passing also made state national news. The Ski Town Lions would like to place a memorial project and plaque uh just like this uh in honor of what Larry did for the community. Uh and obviously this is playground equipment.

Mhm.

Um we approached Parks and Wreck uh Matthew Bennard and he instantly rejected our request uh to do this project uh simply because he said uh the park's completed and there's no more room. Um when you look at that park, there's plenty of room uh to install this and we think it would be a really cool community project and well received. Um we asked if other locations would fit and his response was there was no available locations to fit in any other parks in the city. Um we looked at the playground. It looks like the structure will fit pretty well alongside uh the additional playground structures. Um, but we're also open to other places as well. But because it's the Lion's Park and we've got a great history there and we're sponsoring this, I think if we can get the help of the council to place the structure here, I think it'll be a really cool thing for the community as well. We estimate the project to be about 10 to 15,000 of which we will raise the funds uh through a GoFundMe page. Um, we just really are asking for you guys to help us uh and working with the parks and wreck uh to build this memorial in honor of Larry who gave so much to this community and um and so that families can enjoy it for years to come. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, mate. Right on. Good timing. And all right, good job. Is there anybody else who has a general public comment tonight? Come on down.

Hello, I'm Amy Charity, 281 Locust Court. Um, I wanted to introduce myself to new council members. Looks like I picked a light night to come. Um, but I was I'm here to talk about SBT gravel, the gravel cycling event that takes place in June. I know especially tonight it's hard to wrap your heads around cycling and summer, but I wanted to tell you a little bit about what we have planned that's new this year. So SBT, we've been permitted for 2,750 cyclists. We opened up registration in October and we exceeded our capac well. We had more interest than we can um fulfill which is a great problem to have. So we are sold out. We have riders from every single state in the US. We have riders from 15 countries and our youngest rider is seven and our oldest is 84 and local. So really excited about who we have coming here to to ride and to race this year. Um I wanted to touch on some of our highlights. So we are back to Yampa Street on Friday and Saturday for our expo and then the race will start and finish on Yampa Street on Sunday. Um, new this year we have a mountain climb. We've partnered with Ski Core and that will be up at the mountain and they're hosting a summer concert which we're excited about. We have a really fun format with costumes and a single elimination race and so we are encouraging anyone in town to come and do this. We've spoken with the Winter Sports Club cycling kids. We would love for them to participate. All of the proceeds go to the cycle effect. So, we're really excited about that initiative as well. The second one is a steamboat trail. So we are working with the Steamboat Springs Running Club and we will have a 5K and a 10K race on Saturday. This is the same day as our expo and all of the awards will happen in Little Tooth Park. The all the

proceeds for that go to the um running series and to local nonprofits. So this is just us expanding our opportunities for the SBT audience, their spouses, their families to have another event to do if they're not cyclists. So we're really excited about that partnership. The third initiative that's new this year is our junior program. And so we opened up scholarships to three young girls, three young boys to ride SBT gravel. We had 30 applications. They came from all over the country. And we actually had seven local kids who want to do this. We are offering host housing to these juniors. We are actually we've had some people offer to make donations. We're going to try to get all 30 of these kids in which we're really really excited about. So um all of these initiatives are to help um us grow, not in a way that is having negative impacts, but how we can welcome more local riders to Steamboat and to create that festival atmosphere. So, I am out of time and just want to thank you for your support for our event.

Thank you. Thank you, Amy. Thanks, Amy.

Is there anyone else in the audience who would like to make a public comment? Okay. Is there anybody online? And if so, just raise your hand. I'm not seeing anyone. So, we will close public comment. And I just, you know, for Amy, I would I would like to say that every year you just seem to take it to the next level. You take the learning, you make improvements every single year. So, I we really appreciate what you do and what your event does for our economy here. So, thank you. Um, can we talk about Larry the C? I wish they hadn't left like that. um thoughts,

council, uh I I think that I need to confer with parks and recck. So, why don't why don't I have an opportunity to talk with staff and we can get back to you through a memo or something in terms of next steps. Okay. Okay, that would be great. That's fine. Yeah. And and when you do that, just kind of see is there other areas? I mean, clearly trying to honor it, but if there's other parks or Whistler Park or something in the future. Yeah. And I would only say that my only suggestion was that maybe uh to take those gentlemen and and maybe walk out with them and maybe look at some opportunities where there might be a place. So yeah, we we'll reach out to them and see if there's

All right, we're done with public comment. We will move on to our community reports. Items on the community reports, city council discussion calendar may be commented on in the same manner manner as the consent calendar and public hearing items. So the first item on here is herbic herbicide use within Parkland and is that Angela and Stephanie. Awesome. Is our team comes on down. Wonderful. All right. Good evening, city council. Angela Cosby, our parks and recreation director. Joining me tonight is some of our very talented staff members. Stephanie Monroe, our deputy director of land management. Further in the back, Jenny Kerry, our open space and trails supervisor and Colorado Department of Agricultural Pesticide Certified Operator. and Andy Prior, trails and open space foreman, also a Colorado Department of Agriculture pesticide and uh pesticide certified operator. This topic started last March. City Council directed staff and the parks and recreation commission to review our herbicide use or more specifically glyphosate use within parkland. From there, the parks and recreation commission discussed it over three different sessions. They also reviewed our herbicide use policy. Um, regardless of your decision tonight, there is broad confusion and some inaccurate information about how and where glyphosate is used in our parkland. So, we're going to state uh these following three points several times tonight

throughout the presentation. First, glyphosate is not used on playgrounds. Second, glyphosate is not used in grass areas. It's not possible. It kills grass. Third, uh glyphosate is used limitedly in bare ground and spot spray applications. While we work to minimize the use of glyphosate wherever possible, it remains the safest and most effective tool when utilized properly. Eliminating glyphosate entirely would likely lead to increased weed spread and increased use of less effective and often more costly treatments. That said, staff and the parks and recreation commission also recognize the use of glyphosate uh of herbicides, including glyphosate, is a complex and often controversial issue with a wide range of perspectives. The purpose of tonight's discussion is to report back to city council and share what we've learned throughout our research and evaluation. And at the end of the presentation, we'll provide you with a variety of possible options and receive your direction on how you would like us to proceed. With that, I'll pass it off to Stephanie. All right. Thank you, Angela. Not as tall as her, so um good evening. Uh my name is Stephanie Monroe, uh park and recreation deputy director of land management. Thank you for having us this evening. Uh we will be providing an overview of the park and recreation's recreation commission sessions, the department's herbicide use policy, describe how and where we apply the herbicide glyophate, review the application spray maps and test plots that the staff concluded as well as review all of our process improvements from last season to this season. Um, as Angela has stated, we began this process with the direction from city council with the park and recreation

commission to evaluate the use of glyophate in city parklands. And therefore, at the June 11th, session one, I introduced the discussion item regarding the use of glyophate um in the city park in a city managed parklands. The purpose of this presentation was to provide an educational background, foster informed dialogue with the commission and outlining the current department practices related to the use of pesticides within the city parklands. During this session, the commission requested addition additional information uh to inform future policy decisions as well as to pro improve that public understanding. Session two held on August 13th with a data focus consistent of uh expanded scientific background and safety information on glyophate, clarification of area uh of areas within the parklands where we spray, spot spray and treat, details on alternative weed management and strategies, and then a comparative analysis of glyophate versus alternatives. Um, the goal really to this was to ensure recommendations that were based on sound science, transparent policies, and comprehensive evaluation of options. Staff began at this time to work with our CU extension partners to seek guidance and recommendation recommendations on our current policies and practices. And we invited Lisa Bleckner to uh from CSU Extension Services in Fort Collins uh to help us with that. second session. As session two concluded, the Parks and Recreation Commission requested staff to provide research on herbicide alternatives, uh develop site maps of current glyophate applications, and explore options for annual auditing purposes.

The land management division adheres to the outline pesticide use policy. Our policy is compliant with local, state, and federal regulations and follows best practices by the Colorado Department of Agriculture. The department's policy ensures ensures staff compliance of policy certification through the state of Colorado Pesticide Applicator Act. uh full-time staff hold certified applicator operator CO or qualified supervisor uh which is QC certifications through the department of agriculture full and staff are trained annually and seasonal staff work under that supervision of either the CO or QS. Moving on here, our integrated pest management plan known as the IPM is integrated within our use pesticide use policy. The IPM provides the parks and recreation department with strategies to control noxious weeds and other invasive invasive plant species. The IPM offers different control methods that are implemented as part of a comprehensive and environmentally responsible approach to remove those weeds. These methods are shown on this slide and as last resort chemical methods are used. White top is a noxious weed and is an example of a weed that typically requires several years of chemical treatment to manage. So what is gly glyphosate? Uh there are two different ways to classify herbicides. One known as selective and non- selective. Glyophate is that non- selective herbicide and is applied to leaves of plants that kill both broadleaf plants and grasses. The park and recreation department staff uses glyphosate in a controlled setting for spot spraying on bare ground applications. Um these are targeted treatments in areas where vegetation

needs to be eliminated such as warning tracks. An example of that would be those dirt paths, edges along sports fields, hardscapes, paved or concrete surfaces like sidewalks and plazas, and medians. The year-over-year usage, as shown on this slide, indicates, in 2024, we used a total of 80 ounces, which is about 5/8 of a gallon, primarily along the soft surface core trail and around kioses. In 2025, usage increased to 203 ounces, which is equivalent to about 1 and a half gallons. This was due to the expanded efforts of controlled uh to control invasive species, specifically binweed and spotted napweed. The department uses glyophate very minimally as you can see. However, it is a very valuable tool and resource to have. Glyophate effectiveness helps limit higher use rates of other chemicals and prevents the spread of weeds. Um oop lost in my notes. Um so as part of this process staff concluded a pure community analysis highlighting a couple of these takeaways. Uh in the city of Durango, the park and recreation department has adopted a more weed-friendly acceptable approach or a weed friendly culture eliminating glyophate within its department. Although this policy is not citywide, meaning that just parks has eliminated it, not other departments. Um they also have decided not to add this into their city code, allowing the department and an organic committee to make operational changes as necessary. Bless you. This means that if there is a noxious weed outbreak, the department and/or committee are able to treat the uh weed with a selective herbicide.

City of uh Glenwood Springs uses glyophate minimally for spot spraying methods. Very very typical to and similar to our practices. The city of Golden has overall decreased the chemical use within any chemical use within the parks and rec department, but they also still used for space spot spray treatments and medians and open spaces. Uh they have phased out the use of glyph glyphosate within their municipal parks. Jackson Parks Recreation District does not have a weed management plan and has expressed interest in using or adopting ours when they get to that that part of their development. And finally, the city of Boulder has made a citywide policy ordinance program and program that eliminates or reduces the use of pesticides. Staff uses a pre-approved herbicide list that city and city council approves any additional or new u based on needs. City of Boulder shared with me that they rely heavily on volunteer groups and have a very robust city-wide volunteer program with staff to manage these opportunities. City of Boulder also shared that staff use mechanical methods and require annual funding resources to help manage that department. All right, I'm going to send it off to Andy Prior, who is one of our park and recreation foremen, and he is going to go over the last season's spray maps and test pilots results and alternatives, which Park and Recreation expressed interest in.

Andy, thank you, Stephanie.

Hi, Andy Prior, Open Space and Trails and Housing Hill, Foreman. Uh, I'm going to go over this first map. It shows the places that we applied glyphosate uh throughout 2025. There's Iron Springs, Yampa Street, particularly the core trail and 12th Street, Snake Island and the Howy Tunnels uh particularly for siteways, uh Bear River Escape Park and Rich Weiss and Fish Creek Trail and the End of Core Trail which were specific for spotted napweed treatment. Uh this next slide it outlines uh the test plots I did in which I tested alternatives to glyphosate and I'll just briefly go through this uh Roundup Pro which is glyphosate uh we saw 90% control and then the signal word category that's EPA designation of the safety of a chemical and so that's the easy way to see how safe a chemical is and caution is their lowest designation um and also PPE required by the applicator uh which is gloves and eyewear for glyphosate. Cheetah Pro an alternative chemical we also saw 90% effectiveness again signal word caution but it does require more applicator safety in gloves, eyewear coveralls and chemical resistant boots. Spectraide, which is a combination of three different chemicals. We saw less control of 70 to 80%. Uh again, signal word of caution and more PPE, gloves, eyewear, and chemical resistant boots. Um commercially available Roundup no longer contains glyphosate, but it's a again a combination of three different chemicals. uh 70 to 80% control signal word caution and again the PPE of

gloves, eyewear and chemical resistant boobs. Uh Fiesta, just a note that it is a selective herbicide. Uh so it's not a non- selective like most on this list. So we saw absolutely no control. It has a signal word of caution and it requires gloves and eyewear. And the final one is vinegar acet acetic acid. It was at 30%. We saw absolutely no control and it has the second highest designation for signal word in danger and it requires gloves, face shield and chemical resistant boots. Uh this kind of outlines that we found the closest alternative would be cheetah pro uh because we saw similar results uh similar uh uh signal word and then PPE quite a difference for the applicator u but we have to particularly note that it's almost three times as expensive as glyphosate and uh that's what we found in in the testing. This is just a quick slide of me at the test plots. Um, one is with a signal word caution. This is me with spraying glyphosate. You can see the limited amount of PPE required and then the other one is me with vinegar and the drastically increased amount of PPE required by the applicator. and I'll hand it back off to Stephanie.

You all right, our audit findings. Uh we do an annual review of our herbicide use policy policy reviewing this annually by our parks supervisor who is also our certified spray um applicator. We are in compliant and and fully meets state and federal pesticide regulations. The Colorado Department of Agriculture does have oversight by enforcement of the Pesticide Applicators Act and coordinates audits and inspections as needed and they do have corrective measures in place where the CDA works with operators if an issue arises. Parks and Recreation Commission requested exploring a thirdparty audit and we did so through those peer city analysis as mentioned earlier. Staff also consulted with route county. We have been informed that they cannot perform a formal audit of our policies. However, REC recommends considering a city specific weed plan and looking into the use of glyophate altern alternatives such as cheetah pro as well as the city can adopt this county's plan with compliance recline requirements needed to be updated every three years. Uh consulting with our CSU extension partners also indicated not being able to provide a formal audit. However, they do support the CDA standards and we're impressed by our policy, especially the annual review process. Uh the extension offices confirmed that our practices meet best standards. So, in summary, we have found that uh city of Steamboat Springs Park and Recck Department is compliant and aligned with industry best standards. Okay, a couple more. Hang with me. Um, as part of our annual review of the pol of the policy use policy, we have implemented the following improvements of our practices this past season in 2025. We have potentially intentionally

increase the use of signage where possible, adding communication where entry areas uh allow us to do an A-frame or something similar. Parks department added to our policy a 10-ft barrier of no spot spraying around playgrounds within those parks. And the parks, open space, and uh trails department conducts an annual review of herbicide policy as we talked about. And the staff sup and staff supervisors complete an annual application log of any operator that uh develops records. In part of our learning process and the annual review, we recommend the following process improvements for the next spray season in 2026. Updating the city resolution to reflect the adopted route county noxious weed management plan. Ongoing collaboration education advisory efforts with the route county weed program and weed coordinator. And then we will be launching a three-year PI pilot program replacing glyophate with the alternative herbicide cheetah along the yampa streetcape corridor. This pilot will give us three years to collect data and review data over time. uh ex we would like to take a look at the weed control effectiveness of that herbicide, the product usage, customer as well as staff feedback. Uh of course we want to monitor the cost and then um monitor those staff resources needed. As the results of these, we'll be summarizing an annual evaluation report to help guide future management decisions and inform potential systemwide use. As part of that 2026 spray season process improvement effort, staff did look into developing a citywide management plan, weed management plan. This initiative has been reviewed but internally by staff and other departments and resi resign revise that plan with route county's weed management plan and is moving forward to adopt along with the

update of that city resolution uh through the planning department. All right, I'm going to send it back to Angela to wrap us up. All right, I'm going to hit one more point that uh we skipped over the difference between um Roundup Pro and Cheetah Pro. Cheetah Pro does not kill the root. So, if you were to use Roundup Pro, you would likely only need to apply it once where Cheetah Pro, if you use that, it would more be more likely to come back. Um, so that was one of the differences we found as well. Your last slide for you, some different options and the recommendation. The first one, direct the parks and recreation department to maintain its current herbicide practices and include the updated process improvements for the 2026 spray application season to include the updated city resolution adopting Route County's weed management plan, which is later on your agenda tonight. Second, the route county continued collaboration efforts. And third, the pilot program. This is both staff and the parks and recreation commission's recommendation. Another option is to direct staff to discontinue the use of uh glyphosate within city parklands. And the third is to provide other feedback or direction on what you would like us to do and report back with. With that, myself, Stephanie, Andy, and Jenny are happy to answer any questions you have.

Thank you all for that presentation. We'll ask some questions. My my first question just was real simple. I mean the the concern with gly glyphosate um is a carcinogen I guess is what the big issue is with that. It causes cancer or something. Does cheetah pro and the other ones are chemicals as well? They just proven to not have the same risk. I Andy do you feel comfortable taking that? Come on up.

Yeah. So um almost all those chemicals that we listed are listed under possible carcinogen. Glyphosate is only found by one organization to be possibly carcinogenic in the same category as red meat. Uh so it's one of so it's one of those things it's you know uh a lot of things can be carcinogenic and it's just as far as they're concerned it's the least amount and uh such as the World Health Organization doesn't list it as a possible carcinogen. only one organization does.

And yet we go through this exercise, you know, through our community concern, but it's nice to educate ourselves and the community as to the reality of what Glassifate is. And it sounds to me like you're um we're in compliance with a lot of the uh state and every all the other jurisdictions. Um, the one question I have is with Route County, um, have they approved the still use of glyphosate in their specific bear areas like ours?

Uh, absolutely. Yeah. So, um, outside of, uh, in Route County in general, uh, COT, they all use glyphosate. Um, it is a safe and effective tool. And as um Angela pointed out, it's one of those that we can reduce the amount of usage of chemicals, which I'd say is always the goal um because it is systemic and kills the entire plant versus some alternatives which just kill the above ground plant. Cool. Thank you. Other questions?

Question. Um for the glyophate um are we also um treating the weeds with other um methods um like mechanical methods as well? Are we using a variety? Maybe you can come up and talk about it.

Sure. Absolutely. Yeah. So, uh chemical is always our last resort. Um, and it's one of those it's when mechanical mowing and some of those methods have not worked and that we need to um step up our control. Um, those as as that uh chart laid out in IPM integrated pest management chemical is always the last step. So we always use mechanical methods first uh re seed receding trying to get a dominant species we want to take over and then when all those fail that's when we go to glyphosate.

Okay. And another question you might be able to answer this one as well. Um when we're treating weeds with glyophate are we focusing in on um noxious weeds or are we just doing all weeds? cuz I I appreciate we have an agenda item coming up next for um the route county and they identify I don't know 15 or so noxious weeds. So talk to me about how we're spraying, what we're spraying and why.

So yeah. So absolutely. So uh me in particular, I deal with mostly using it for noxious weeds. As I said, the spotted nap weed, which is a particularly nasty, noxious weed that other methods are not effective, uh, because you can pull it and it will come right back. Um, so, and we also use it for bare grounding and that's for a lot of safety reasons. And that's like the warning track of the baseball fields, the sightelines on the tunnels. And that's just where we want as glyphosate being a non- selective that's where we're trying to kill any plant so that there's nothing there. And so that's where it's also used. But it's key to our arsenal of dealing with our u noxious weeds because some will have to use more of a different kind of chemical or have repeated chemical each year have to spray you know a different kind of chemical where we see more control and less applications with glyphosate and not just weeds why we use it for spotted napweed.

Okay. And one one more question. Um I know some um chemicals I'm sure maybe it's in here as well. You have to be so far away from any um rivers, creeks um bodies of water. Um what are the restrictions around glyphosate um and like the ampa?

Oh no, absolutely. So, uh, just the Colorado Pesticide Applicators Act, we don't spray any within 10 ft, but glyphosate, uh, again is very effective because it's not residual. So, there's no runoff that can happen into a waterway because once it's dry, it's completely absorbed by the plant and if it rains, it's not going to go into the waterways. And we generally any chemical do not spray within 10 ft of any water sources. Perfect. Okay. Thank you. That was really helpful. Thank you. Councelor Swinte, do you have any questions? Is it glyophate or glyphosate?

Both. How is it both? Not both. Both. Gloifate. Okay, cool. Um, they're saying it wrong. Am I hearing you say we may need to use more Cheetah Pro because it doesn't kill the root versus quantity-wise we wouldn't need to use as much Roundup Pro.

And that was uh and that was something um I missed. Uh so it's not a systemic so that means it kills the it doesn't kill the entire plant. So a lot of especially noxious weeds they are risotous. So they can spread through just the roots. They can sprout new plants. And cheetah pro kills the above ground plant but does not kill the roots. Glyphosate is a systemic. It kills the entire plant.

Therefore requiring less chemical over. So yeah, uh uh cheetah pro we'd have to come back every year because if the roots are alive, they'll sprout back up next blooming season. Uh where we'll be using more chemicals versus glyphosate where the plant's gone. We that same plant won't come back up the next year. Okay. Thanks. Um while you're up there,

Yeah. Sorry. Um, I know the cost difference is two and a half times, but looking at the cost per gallon and the amount you're using, it's really not a big number. I mean, we're talking like hundred $200. Am I reading that right? So, on this three-year pilot program where you're going to use Cheetah Pro, are you looking at I mean, how are you comparing it to uh glyphosate in in the sense are you taking like pictures prior and then you're going to look every year at pictures afterward? Um is the one question. And the other question is with glyphosate, are you saying that when you spray an area with that that you don't spray that area again the following year or h how do you determine if you respray with gly you're saying with cheetah pro you'll have to every year? I hear what you're saying.

Yeah. So basically the seed bank within the soil you don't know what's going to come up every you know it could be a completely different uh plant the next year and glyphosate will kill the plants that are there. Um again it it doesn't work like you can't just spray soil and it kills anything because it's not residual. You have to spray the individual plant to kill it. And so Peter Pro, we could kill the above ground part of the plant, but it will come back. And that's all based on the seed bank and the soil and what parts of the plant are left. And that's why we try to do the three-year and uh we would do both pictures and with our spray maps. Hey, we had to spray this all three years or we had to spray this for one year and then you know further down. But um some seeds are viable for years. So, it's not something you can just test it one one season and then be like, "All right, that was effective." Because, you know, a completely different species may pop up the next year.

Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Well, I mean just the only concern that I have is just where is it that you've been accused of spraying glyphosate that got the uproar into the community about it sounds like you're you're in very minimal locations and has it been that way for a while?

Really good question. A lot of the times um the community doesn't necessarily know what's in our backpack sprayer or what we're spreading across a field. We might be spreading fertilizer or we might be using something to treat um white top on Emerald Mountain. Um we have to go back through our logs because we are required by the state to log whenever we do use herbicides. Um so I think it was probably a response of fear. I know a lot of the times I've received several comments of you used glyphosate all over Whistler Park just like that was fertilizer. We wouldn't actually have the grass there. or same with Emerald Park or up on um so Emerald Park developed park along Lincoln or Emerald Mountain um when we've been treating White Top um community members have not known when and thought it was glyphosate when it was really either fertilizer or a different herbicide.

Okay. Okay. Any other questions? Is the white top one plant specific or whatever that type of fert like what is you're treating that? We know glyphosate is not our go-to with that. I believe Andy or Jenny could answer that for you. I know I use glyphosate at home for my white top, but we don't within our parklands. It's we have other control measures for that. What do we use for white top? Telar. Telar.

I guess just thinking from the community's point of view, maybe they're calling it glyphosate, but they're more concerned about broad spraying of things. So, I guess is there a reason for concern if you're spraying for white top over a broad area? I'll let our more specific staff, but I don't believe we and we also don't have equipment that just broadly sprays. Um we when whenever we are using most of our herbicides, they are in backpack sprayers. If you see us spreading something, it's probably a fertilizer um to help turf. But if you want to ask, I'm happy to let our experts know.

Well, I guess I'm just more thinking from the public. We keep talking about glyphosate. you use it in a very small space, fertilizer, that makes sense. But if people are seeing staff in packs spraying somewhere else, it's not glyphosate, they still would have the same concern. It's just how do we address that concern as well publicly? I don't know. Does that make any sense? I believe you're posing a theoretical question for council, not necessarily for staff. I don't really know what I'm trying to say. Yeah, I guess I'm more just thinking what's

Okay, so we have public come in and say you're spraying glyphosate and we say it's not glyphosate and they're saying but you're still spraying it's another chemical and then we start another three-year pilot. That's where my thing is. It's like okay where are we spraying this and is there a concern or do we just not worry about that? Well, let's let's uh open it up to public comment then we'll come back and talk about that. Um, is there anybody in the audience who would like to make public comment? Okay. Is there anyone online? And if so, raise your hand. Seeing none, we'll close public comment and bring it back to council. Steve, you have We got one. Yeah. Togg Hagen. Okay. Todd, are you there?

He's with the CSU Extension.

Thank you, Mr. President. Yes. Uh, Todd Higinoo with Car State University Extension in Route County. um extension faculty um in the city of Simote Springs there and uh serve also uh as an adviser on this project a bit was happy to also connect your staff with Lisa Blackler who is our extension uh herbicide and pesticide applicator educator. Um, I think some of the questions that council has is one of the things I've raised before and I guess that is the question of uh whether it is in your uh your best uh interest to weigh in on every application of herbicide or any pesticide that you may be applying. Uh as a reminder, as your staff has so so eloquently pointed out, uh these herbicides, all of them have been looked at by the EPA. um they are regulated by the Cloud Department of Agriculture. You have staff that has educated themselves very well on the appropriate use of both location, timing, rates, and the personal protective equipment that they need to use. Uh I think they've done a great job and commend them for looking into this more deeply. Commend council for asking them to do so. Uh but I would question uh as I do in any of these situations if I were you. If you make a call on this um as one of the other counselors talked about then do you need to make a count a call next month on the use of Telar? Do you make uh the call on the use of other things that uh have already been deemed uh safe by the public entities that we've entrusted hopefully um with with good reason for doing the science behind that. So, I would ask you to and encourage you to think about that as you make this decision and again congratulate your staff on on doing their due diligence. Um, well done staff.

Thank you, Todd. Is there anybody else online? If so, please raise your hand. Okay, seeing none, we'll close public comment. And Angela, can we put up that um options and recommendations slide back up? I think while Angela's doing that, I think our conversation on the agenda item for um the route county um weed u whatever it's called management um I think that will also help with this conversation. I could be wrong, but we'll let Angela talk about that when that agenda item comes up. um because I think it's really important for our community to understand um the impact of noxious weeds and white top and the negative impact specifically white top has um on for so many reasons um in and around Row County. So

I think the key word is evasive species. Anything that's evasive we do need to have control over or else it will take over in so many areas. And yeah, white top is definitely an example, but this is not one of those products at which they spray on white top because of the surrounding areas and that's good to make note of. Yeah,

for sure. I looking at the uh examples that our staff went go through and the bare areas. Uh I mean I've used Roundup in the past on my sidewalks and around the house and so it's just to keep control over those weeds. I am concerned with Cheetah Pro because um it's not it's a to me it seems like an inferior product in that a lot of the noxious weeds again they grow under the ground and they the root just keeps growing and will pop up probably later on that season. Um and so it's definitely something that's going to be the ongoing effort. I'm fine with a pilot program for now, but I would anticipate that it's not going to nearly be as successful at all uh compared to killing the root of that. Um, and I was actually really surprised on how little I mean a gallon of I mean a gallon that's that's one gallon a Roundup gallon of GIFA is not a lot. I mean, if we were spraying the entire areas and stuff like that, that's a lot to concern ourselves with. So, um, yeah, that's kind of the thoughts I have. Okay. Other thoughts, counselors,

as we look at the three options up there, I'm fine with the PI with number one with the pilot and going with staff recommendations and the parks and wreck recommendation. While I would love to not use chemical at all, I understand the importance of it and the need for it in certain scenarios. So, okay. Can I ask a question of staff? Yeah. I appreciate number one as your recommendation. Is that a recommendation trying to appease us? Like, do you see what councelor Buchino is saying where you're like, "This is just going to be three years and I know it's not going to be good." So, but we think you want this or no, you actually think it is a worthwhile exercise.

Thank you, Brian. That's a dangerous question. Um, this was part of the recommendation from parks and recck commission. I believe part of it was proposed to um look at options and keep open minds. So is it a for like so basically cheetah pro is not going to be as effective as roundup?

We don't believe it will be. It wasn't in our t in our pilot test that we did over the summer. Um, but as Andy pointed out, what our a main concern is year-over-year usage. We don't want to stop treating weeds for five years and then report back on year six that we were using 100 gallons because we needed to catch up. Um, so we want to be able to monitor closely the in if there is increased use or not. And from the standpoint, Are you done, Brian? I didn't mean to interrupt you. Oh,

go for it. um from the standpoint of the pilot program and whatnot um it doesn't appear to add much cost um and a little bit of equipment I guess to but it shouldn't be a a major correct if we were looking um if we had a major weed challenge and we needed to use far more um chemicals than we currently are, I'd be more concerned about the cost. But purchasing an extra gallon, no, I'm not concerned about that right now. Have we ever done a study, like a pilot program on weeds like this? Is this the first time that we've really done this?

We did one this summer over the different products you saw on your screen that Andy went over um as part of parks and recck commission's request and our evaluation of it. Prior to that, not within my knowledge. No. And that is a very limited window. It will be very interesting to see the results over three years.

Yeah. Okay. I mean, I'll weigh in. My personal opinion would be I appreciate the thought on number one, but it sounds like it's not really a valuable exercise. If anything, I think number three would be ideal. I don't know what the second half of that means, honestly. But I would say direct staff to do that, but then improve communication, like better signage, education, make it more clear. We use very little amounts. It's only a gallon. That would be my personal opinion. I appreciate once again number one, but it kind of sounds like we already know what the outcome is going to be. So why would we do this?

Well, and and the way it sounded like we've been bringing this up with all due respect to glyophate glyphosate glyphosate is that it's you know, it's like I thought we were spraying hundreds of gallons all over our community and to find out that it's barely a gallon and it's regulated and hope I mean

really come on. I mean, to me, that doesn't seem But I I agree with Brian, but I'm not opposed to doing a test. I just think that if the test was not very fruitful this summer, a three-year study, um, yeah, I I I mean, I'm open to it, but I I'm hesitant at the results. We're going to go back to glyophosate. I wonder though part what I heard too of the study is to also um get community feedback and how tolerant folks will be possibly having more weeds. Did I hear that right?

So I mean I think that might be valuable as well because I think what I was gathering was that Durango may they may be like me we don't care. So that might actually be helpful information that people may be like we don't really care. um that these are um that we have more weeds as long as they're not n not invasive or you know all the bad ones. But that might be helpful.

Okay. Well, I'll I'll just say that I I hear what you're saying, Councelor Swintech. I also think that um doing the pilot program um there's no real risk associated with that. Um, and I think we should show the community, even though it's an issue that, you know, if you say round up to people, it does get an emotional response from a lot of people out there. Um, there's a lot of lawsuits that's gone against Bayer over the course of time and whatnot. And at least by doing this pilot program which is a minimal expense and not much additional resources at least we can get some data that suggest you know we tried and looked at an option here and uh you know we'll see what happens. So thumbs up or thumbs down um on option one.

Okay. Make it happen. Make it happen. Take some pictures. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, we will move on to our second community report. Yampampa Valley Housing Authority annual report. And who is going to present that? Oh, right on Q. Come on down, Jason. Jason Beasley. and team. Okay,

you're on. It's just three, you guys. Um, well, there's Oh, there's four of us. Okay.

Uh, well, uh, thank you for the opportunity. My name is Jason Peasley. I'm the executive director of the Yampa Valley Housing Authority. Um, as as you guys know, because we talked about this last week, um, annually we provide a a report to the community. Um, and that report is, um, has been included in your packet. Um, and, uh, we're presenting it to you. We're actually going to be presenting in March to the county as well. Um what I wanted to talk about briefly is um we were as you know created by the city and county and we have kind of one specific purpose and that's to deliver housing solutions and um I'm not going to go through all these numbers but um over the course of the time that the housing authority has been around we've been we've delivered hundreds of housing units. We've preserved many more uh and we've impacted thousands of lives. uh and the the way in which we do that is through a variety of um tactics. So um for I hate reading slides but I will read you our mission statement which is support the local community uh support the local economy community and businesses of the ampa valley by implementing appropriate housing solutions for worker local workers qualified residents and their families. How we get that done is through kind of a four-pronged approach. The first is development and preservation. And that's the most tangible thing that you'll see uh is new buildings going up or uh a mobile home park that was once um owned by a private party is now owned by the housing authority. Um that is the most visible uh indication of our uh of our uh mission. Secondarily, the the treatment of those properties, property management, selling of real estate, those are services that we provide to the community to make sure that those properties are are wellmaintained and that those uh units that are for sale

transfer ownership um smoothly. Um thirdly, and this is something that doesn't necessarily get a lot of um of press, so I want to focus on this, is our down payment assistance program. We've actually talked about this a little bit recently with the housing committee um is that countywide we've supported uh nearly 100 families with with down payment assistance and that is creating an opportunity for folks to get into free market homes with just that little bit of help. Um and the city over the years 10 years ago 15 years ago supported the creation of that down payment assistance fund. we've been able to get grants and things like that. We're actually investing about 700,000 this year in down payment assistance to help folks get into um home ownership. So, it's a it's a it's a really important piece that I think goes generally speaking unnoticed because it's just a single transaction with an individual happens to help them close their home and on they go. Um and then the last thing that we do is housing navigation. the the world of housing is constantly changing and so we provide services to folks that walk into our office or give a call to our our front desk um and and just don't even know where to begin. I'm I'm struggling with housing or I'm new to town, whatever it might be. We help connect them with the resources, whether they're our resources or whether they're other resources in the community that can help them get into housing. So um we provide those services um to the community and uh obviously at at no cost. Um when when we talk about our kind of real estate holdings again that's the most tangible thing that you can see and and you've seen it all around um all around town from the reserves um on the

west side of town all the way to to anglers and and uh Alpenlow here in kind of the central valley side of town. Um, what's important to note is that every single one of those units that we deliver has a household living in them. And uh, and that's the stuff that really brings us a ton of joy. Um, so just recapping the communities that we own or have developed, Hillside Village Apartments. Um, Fox Creek was the first deed restricted home ownership property that the housing authority built nearly over 20 years ago. um Fish Creek Mobile Home Park and White Haven mobile home park. White Haven was one of those mobile home preservation opportunities that we had. Each one of those properties, Hillside, Fish Creek, and White Haven are part of our ongoing plan to invest in those communities. Um we're working on a water and sewer project at White Haven, working on an an electrical upgrade program at uh Fish Creek, uh as well as adding bringing in swapping out new trailers so people can upgrade their their living conditions. And then we're working on a wholesale um rehabilitation of Hillside Village Apartments over the course of the next couple of years. Um our other affiliated properties, these are ones that you guys are quite familiar with. They've been they've been built recently. Um and uh those are the reserves, Alpenlow, Anglers, and Sunlight. Uh we don't manage those. We've spent quite a bit of time talking about that. I want to thank you guys for your help in elevating the property management issues. Um my team members were out doing walks with the checklists that we had all talked about and seeing a ton of progress um at those properties as far as the physical conditions as far as um you know the management staffing levels. Um so all of that is in a state of significant improvement. So, thank you guys for all of your help kind of

elevating that uh and making sure that that that the folks that live there get the the highest quality of living conditions that they deserve. Um, as we jump into development, we have we think of development in in essentially four stages. um concept being very uh nent and and things that we're exploring but they aren't necessarily real yet. Pre-development are areas where we are actively working to finance design um the projects go through the entitlement process. Um construction is obviously construction there's going vertical and then delivery and that's the most important thing. We need to move projects from concept to delivery as fast as possible. And so from our standpoint, our internal goals are to have a 100 units in each stage of of the kind of development pipeline. 100 in concept, 100 in pre-development, 100 under construction, and 100 units being delivered. Um, so to that end on the delivery side of things, the Cottonwoods lotteryies are opening later this month and units will be uh getting CO in March. So this is this is the sort of end goal of everything that we do is creating an opportunity for a household to have a new place to call home. Um, and we're incredibly excited about the Cottonwoods. We've had uh nearly 500 households express interest uh in living there. We've got uh we're nearing kind of the hundred mark of people qualified to live in the units uh that can enter the lotteryies. And so, uh, we are we have a an entire team along with our partners at the agency are working on running the lotteryies and taking those

folks through a seamless process of of going under contract and moving into their new units in the next several, uh, several weeks. So, um, we're incredibly excited about that. Um, there's for those listening at home, there's a QR code on the on the screen if you want to learn more or you can email sales yha ybha.org. org. Um we are also doing open houses here uh starting later this week. Um so that uh first the the folks that have been um qualified to buy can start taking a look at the units that they intend to apply for. Uh and then secondarily we want to open that up to folks like you. Um so that you guys can come see what you have invested in. You know, your investment, $10 million in the Cottonwoods has created the deepest and most affordable home ownership opportunity in more than 20 years. So, um, we all should be very proud of that. We're we're looking forward to to people moving in and closing on those units. Um, moving on, strategic plan. We had a little bit of a discussion last week about our strategic plan. I provided that in the packet for you guys. Um, but I wanted to just highlight a few of those things um that you see in our um strategic plan that you may have seen sort of the product of. So, the first being kind of a goal of ours is to know the local housing need. A portion of that is the housing market and demand study that you saw um produced this summer. And that is from our standpoint a very important tool for us to have our finger on the pulse of what what the analytics are saying the market is and then secondarily connecting with the community to

understand what's the product types they're looking for. Um, and so that is a really tangible outcome of that goal for for us as a as an organization. Um, on the property and asset management side of things, um, you know, we are continuing to invest in in resident support as you guys have we've spent quite a bit of time talking about. Um, and then on the real estate side, our goal is to turn that dream of home ownership into a reality for 86 households at the Cottonwoods, but also give people the tools to do that not only at our properties, but many others, uh, including some of the opportunities that we'll be talking about later tonight. Um, from a finance standpoint, um, I also included our audit for you all to see. Um, and our goal here is really to have incredibly healthy financials, but also to make sure that they're they're delivered timely and that they're accessible. Um, and so that's a really uh important aspect for us. We're also focused on forecasting and modeling, not only for our own internal organization, but also for the developments that we're working on. Um, lastly on on policy, um, I have to give a big thanks to Katherine Carson because she boosts our credibility in this area a lot. Um, we are leaders in um, statewide advocacy related to uh, related to housing issues. When there are housing bills, we are getting directly contacted by folks in the legislature to find out what we think about those housing bills. Um, and and that's important for us because we're on the oftentimes on the cutting edge of what's happening with housing. And so being able to feed that information back to the policy makers is is really important from our standpoint. Um, and lastly, from a communication

standpoint, we it's really important for us to tell the stories of the impact that stable housing has. Um it is it is transformational for folks to move from a housing unstable situation and all of the trauma that that causes to get to a place where their housing is stable and they can thrive. Um and so from our standpoint we are really focused on telling those stories. Um looking ahead um as I mentioned one of our one of our goals is to continue to keep filling that pipeline. Um, we obviously have the second phase of Cottonwoods that is in the sort of what I would call advanced stage of pre-development. It's nearly construction ready. Um, I would expect that that thing that could break ground this year. Um, and then we have the US Forest Service Hilltop project which is probably not quite as advanced in that um, pre-development phase. uh where we're where we're nearing the place where we start investing in design and engineering entitlements. Um we obviously continue to explore other opportunities throughout Steamboat to keep that pipeline filled. Um, we're not necessarily speaking about any of those in particular today, but the the point being is that we are out prospecting for opportunities so that we can continue to fill that pipeline because the the projects that you conceive of today, 3 years from now, become more advanced in that pipeline and become something that's nearing delivery. And so the work that we're doing that's being delivered today was in those early stages several years ago. Um we intend to be investing in our properties. Um White Haven um is probably the biggest um project that we have going on which would be replacing all of the water and sewer there and

actually connecting that community to city water for the first time. Uh somehow it sits in the middle of the city but does not have city water. Um it's been on a well for the last 30 40 years. Um and so uh we're doing that through um a mix of state and federal grants um donations and then we obviously have a request into you guys for um for STR funds to support that community. Uh we continue to to work with you all on Brown Ranch. Um and uh look forward to the the meetings next week uh to kind of explore more about what uh what community builders in Civic Canopy have in mind um for the next steps and then uh focusing on property management and and again $700,000 in down payment assistance loans we expect to be making next year. That's largely driven by the cottonwoods, but it's also a function of the fact that there's quite a bit of um quite a bit of housing that's out there on the inventory right now. So, we it runs in sort of cycles. I think we're getting into a place where down payment assistance is going to be far more utilized as housing becomes more accessible. Um, as we finish, I want to I want to hand out something for you guys. Thanks, sir. 401. It's my room.

It's not a room number. It's not a unit number. Well, it is kind of a unit number. Um, when we deliver Cottonwoods here in the next several weeks, YBHA will have delivered 401 housing units to this community. And I wanted to provide this to you and the many other people who have had a hand in helping us deliver 401 units. It's really important for us to understand that that that this is the goal that the the house and the end user is the goal here. And we've delivered on that over the course of the last 20 years for the housing authority. We haven't done it on our own. We've done it together. And so I wanted this to just be a reminder to everyone. As we work collaboratively, these are the types of things we can achieve. So

that is my presentation. If you have any questions, Jason, thank you Jason. Who wants to start? Councelor Pacino. Here you go. Thank you for the token and it's wellreceived. Um it has been one of these I think a lot of people may not know. Um, when we got the angller's property, you know, we had ponyied up, I think, a half a million dollars to help you secure that land from a private buyer. Yep.

And now I have an employee that lives there. And it's it's very exciting that she can live here and not in Hayden, have to drive through. Um, and and on that vein, I just wanted to kind of find out and I it's maybe a little bit in the weeds on this, but as we're pro going into the new for sale project, which is new for your organization. Um, and we've, you know, done as much as we could possibly, we could do more, but I mean, buying it down $10 million to make it for sale is awesome. One thing that I was wondering is that how what kind of financing are these cottonwoods that you guys have secured or is it all conventional loans? Is there you know we have some very wealthy people that have helped us along the way. But in the same regards, is there a fund that we can do with the community foundation that would be something akin to a mortgage that has all kinds of limitations and and h, you know, challenges. Could we even help people finance these the remaining of that with, you know, the community foundation and some other wealthy people to do something to get them in because it may not be conventional to have some of those hundred people even get into one of these units.

Yeah. We haven't spent a ton of time um exploring that particular vein. What what we have been doing has been working with all of the conventional mortgage lenders here in town to make sure that they're all familiar with that. Our experience has been that um that every every single home drestricted home that sells here has a conventional mortgage with it. And the tool that we tend to utilize to help people is that down payment assistance. Um, and so, um, that I think is probably the most beneficial tool. Um, whether it's a down payment assistance loan or whether it's a down payment assistance grant, um, there are a couple different programs out there within the state that allow for that. So, the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority has their own down payment program along with their Chaffa first step um, loan program. And then there's a ton of conventional loan products out there as well. Um, so traditionally what we've done is is paired a pot of down payment money, down payment assistance money with conventional mortgages.

See how that goes this next. It's going to be interesting to hear the stories of how people were able to get financing to get into these properties. Mhm. Um and so I think that to me is one of the encouraging thing and we'll have a conversation later tonight on our second reading of the um agenda that we're working on. But uh no, thank you. It helps. Just kind of a curiosity right now.

I Yeah, I I will be curious to to see as well. We've been communicating a lot to our potential buyers to get in front of their mortgage lenders early and often so that they understand their purchasing power. understand what they can afford, understand all of them understand our down payment programs um so that so that they can kind of create the appropriate financial cocktail for them to get into um into that housing.

There questions for Jason. Hi Jason, thanks for um attaching the um audited financial statements because what I'm reading is that you all you all had a clean audit um for this is in 2024. Mhm. Yeah. So kudos. That's awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Uh most of that goes to my finance team uh and their hard work working with the auditors and working on the books every every week.

Yeah. for those that are not involved in financials like this is a big deal. Um this is what we all strive for but there were no material weaknesses identified significant deficiencies identified. I mean that's what we all strive for. Um and so I just I think that I always like to highlight that when we have audits like this. Thank you. So okay, any other thoughts for Jason? Yeah, I'm just looking what's the next project. Always the next project. That's what we're working on. Yeah. Thank you, Jason. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks, Jason. Thank you for your time.

Yeah. And I guess we should open it up to uh public comment here. Is there anybody in the room or anybody online? Please raise your hand if you're online who'd like to make a public comment. Seeing none, we'll close public comment. And we really don't have any direction to provide at this point in time. Thank you, Jason. Yeah. Okay. Um, do we want to keep moving? Few more minutes. You good? Mhm.

Okay. We will move to the consent calendar. Items on the consent calendar may be reviewed and commented upon in the same manner as other agenda items. Any member of the council or the public may request withdrawal of any item from the consent calendar for further discussion at any time prior to approval. If items are not removed, they may be approved with a single motion. I will read the two on the consent calendar number items six and seven and then we'll go back and see if we want to pull either one or if anybody in the audience or online would like to do that. So item six is a resolution adopting the route county noxious weed management plan and item number seven is the first reading of an ordinance second supplemental budget appropriation ordinance of 2026. Would anyone on councel like to pull either one of those two items? No.

No. Okay. Hearing none. Is there anybody in the audience who would like to pull either one of those two items? or is there anybody online? And if so, please raise your hand if you'd like to pull either one of those two items. Okay, seeing none, then I will ask for a motion to approve the consent calendar item six and seven. So moved. Second. Anyone? Second. Okay, we have a motion by councelor Pacino, second by councelor Dixon. All those in favor say I. I.

I opposed. Motion passes 4 Z. Okay. Then we will move on to public hearing motions, resolutions, and ordinances. Item number eight is a second reading of an ordinance approving city of Steamboat Springs deed restriction purchase program agreement. Do we want to hear from Mr. Well, I'll tell you guys, you can't believe you can't believe how early it is, can you? a little bit of that as you see in the packet. Hi, Brad covered planning department. I do have a presentation. I can certainly walk you through if that's that's helpful or whatever's uh the good of the group.

What would everybody like to see? A presentation or a short summary or um has anything changed from our previous first reading?

A little bit. So that that that does suggest. Let me walk you through the presentation just just real quick. Uh because there are uh modifications that actually have occurred to the attachments that are in your packet also generally kind of throughout the program. They're all relatively light modifications, but but it probably would be good for uh for the group to hear about that. So let me join the Zoom here real quick and I'll fire that up for everybody. more unprofessional.

Well, they're just so good.

They were zooming in on you while you were on a second. Uh so I I I'll move through the slides pretty quickly, but again mostly just for for the record if no other reason to kind of uh share a little bit about what has changed uh since your February 3rd uh conversation. Again, Brad Calbertt in the planning department. Uh both Jen and I are here uh for questions, but Gates Gooding as well as Dan helped out over the last few weeks to get uh information ready for your for your packet tonight. So again, I'll step through these pretty quick. Um obviously the the the action in front of you tonight is is really sort of um related to the actual uh deed restrictions uh that would be associated uh with this pilot purchase of deed restriction program. You can obviously adopt as presented uh further modify uh also happy to hear. I'll be listening for anything related to sort of overall uh program modifications to this very specific item is obviously related to the deed restrictions themselves. You have an appropriation on a second reading uh as well. And I do have one question that probably is worth uh talking about as well that actually doesn't come forward in the deed restrictions. Uh but it is something uh in the administrative procedures that I believe councelor Gusta asked about last time. So it'd be good to get a little direction on that too. Uh so obviously two second readings uh tonight and and back at your last meeting you adopted the affordable housing guidelines. Some of the things as I mentioned as I talked through tonight will hit modifications or revisions to the deed restrictions themselves. Sometimes it's the guidelines. Sometimes it's the administrative procedures. In some cases all of them are updated to make sure that they are uh internally consistent uh with each other. Uh so these are a few things that were talked about uh last time, questions you all had that are really kind of

supplemental information I'm bringing uh to you all uh this evening. We do have an initial estimate from the housing authority uh in terms of their direct cost uh to administer their program. They've estimated uh a figure of $85,000 uh which is a little under 3% of the overall uh program uh cost. Uh importantly that is a lot of initial expenses but they've also calculated expenses out five six seven years to handle the sort of next round of transactions. Obviously people will enter into these uh units uh through this program but but there may be a sale five seven years down the road that also requires um some degree of servicing. Uh so we wanted to make sure and mention that we don't really sort of note it anywhere because we will negotiate that uh through an additional uh agreement. Uh council asked last time about does the subsidy uh to call it something uh be is it considered down payment and the general feeling from the lenders that we've talked to or others that run similar programs is that yes uh but you'll hear this on a couple of slides. It depends on the lender. They all have kind of their own process and protocols uh that they follow. But in general, yes, you can view they do view uh essentially the city contribution to purchase that restriction as something uh equivalent to a down payment. And then you also talked about uh really how the assessor uh value uh values of these properties going forward. It would be based on the valuation with a restriction uh in place. As we thought about this a little bit more since your February 3rd meeting, there's actually a relatively healthy number of uh units that have uh local restrictions as well as price capped restrictions. What will be interesting is how the market comes or that how the assessor sort of begins to handle uh properties that have that local workforce participation restriction only. Most of the product that we have in that is actually rental. So it would it will be a somewhat new uh product t type that the assessor will have to get a handle on in terms of

future uh assessments on that. Uh the rest here actually things that have been modified uh in some shape, form or fashion. Uh there there is a primary residency requirement that's outlined in the restriction. Uh it was previously nine. Uh council provided direction to to make that 10 months. Uh you also discussed uh at your last meeting uh this notion of adding rent caps. Um and that really kind of finds its way in a few places uh within uh the restrictions or in the guidelines. The two owner types are handled differently. sort of think of it as primary owner individual who moves through that three-year uh requirement to be uh the occupant of the union and wants to rent and let's go out year four. There's a different sort of treatment uh for that situation versus how an employer uh would be treated um or what restrictions would apply to an employer. I I can give you sort of the the details as it relates to the sort of the the sections uh within those restrictions where those restrictions are noted if if if helpful. Uh I think this is noted on the next slide. Um we uh also note essentially conditions of of leasing uh for employers uh to bring forward some of the conversations that council had related to essentially that relationship is already fraught with some complexities. Let's let's not over complicate that uh through this program. So uh that's in your uh packet as well. Uh just number six is really just sort of noting u we had a conversation council had a conversation about disability that will be further defined uh in the administrative procedures. This was just sort of making sure folks understand that will be something that happens with that administratively uh created document. Uh and I I just sort of noted seven with the previous item. There are other controls uh related to uh the sort of leasing conditions upon which uh an employer can lease a unit to

an employee. It could be an employee of that employer or it could be another uh qualified uh occupant uh of the unit. Uh and then the other thing that we just sort of caught uh as we were sort of working through iterations is there was just sort of this feeling that we had created kind of an overall too narrow pathway for a spouse uh or other sort of legally defined partner of a qualified employee uh to either be on the title um be a survivor of have a death benefit associated with being able to stay in the unit even if they were not a qualified employee as as defined um by the deed restriction. So, we just did a clean up on a couple of spots uh to make sure particularly that sort of survivor benefit is laid out as pretty tight and narrow still uh as it relates to essentially who can be on title uh and who can uh essentially sort of receive uh remain in the unit based on death of that qualified um occupant. So, we can talk I can talk I can give you sections on that if you'd like. Um, and you all also talked about sort of this idea of what we would call like a min minimum buyer contribution. What what does a potential buyer have to show up uh to closing with in terms of funding beyond uh the city contribution to the purchase of of the deed restriction? Uh, as with the the earlier slide, it's kind of lender by lender. Uh in both of those cases, this slide and the one that I mentioned uh previously, what feels to be the primary consideration of the lender is whether they are going to sell the mortgage to Fanny or Freddy. Uh so that that sort of shapes on the front end um how they think about uh this. Uh so we've had we've seen some instances where there is no buyer contribution that's required when we 3% has kind of been the rule of thumb. So really kind of what I'm asking you this evening is

like do would you want to make uh that a requirement if so would not appear in the restriction would be something that we account for uh in uh the administrative uh procedures in my in our estimation it does make sense to include that maybe start maybe noted at 3% uh during the pilot phase uh but then we can revisit it uh going forward again either 0% 3% or 5% tends to be most common uh particularly in that that price capped instance at that point you actually have a 25% down payment. So it's not unusual that a buyer doesn't actually have to bring uh funding uh to closing given that they are well above that standard 20% down payment. Uh and then just uh to councelor Pacino's questions question there really no changes here but I'll just restating it for for everyone. Some of these were described uh last time. Uh we did make adjustments before first reading related to employer participation uh in the program. Uh as well as uh existing owners who who were looking to voluntarily place a restriction on their property. Those are still part of the pilot program, but we pushed them out uh several months to to make new transactions uh the priority. Those are the first two bullets. Uh the last three bullets were presented just as they are uh tonight back in uh on your meeting on the February 3rd. no change. Uh there the one note I want to sort of describe or mention quick quickly is uh I find myself often using the term subsidy and and in some ways that doesn't feel like the right term here. Subsidy gets used when when there's a market rate product and there's a restricted product and the city has to bring or local government has to bring funding to the table to sort of uh bridge uh that difference. Uh really this is about s for the valuation that the city places on the restriction that that is our part of uh of the equation. You have a a seller that is selling a market rate product. The city is purchasing a restriction and a buyer that is purchasing a now restricted

units. And that really is what that's about is essentially how we're valuing uh those restrictions rather than maybe subsidy is not the best uh descripture description on the slide. Uh so again, your next steps uh you have uh this ordinance in front of you for this item and and then the appropriation item that's next. Uh we've committed to bringing forward obviously monthly uh updates in the city manager report. I suspect over the next few months that'll be about la getting to launch uh making sure we get the administrative uh details worked out with the housing authority and then we are committed uh to bringing you back um a report on program outcomes uh sometime by the by the end of the year. Uh, so same questions as before. Happy to participate in any conversation, be help out with any questions you might have.

Okay. Thank you, Brad. Do we have any other questions for Brad? Councelor Dixon,

I have a follow-up question. It's a reminder. I was sick last time. So afterwards, I was like, this is this does not make sense. So, not the whole thing. The whole thing makes sense. But Brad, a couple um I was I don't understand. It's actually on slide five. Um, number four. I don't understand. We're telling someone it can be your primary resident, but we're saying you have to be there 10 months out of the year. But then there's another category of folks who can buy and live there for three years and then move away and rent it out. Am I remembering that correctly? So like that is they're not like matching up for me.

The that same primary residence issue would apply to any qualified occupant. So you you you are now in year four. You are now leasing your unit. Um that that would it would have to be leased to a qualified employee and this would have to be their primary residence. And there's also the issue if they if that person that that bought uh purchased a unit and and otherwise made themselves ineligible, there's a different sort of cure

approach related to that. I mean that this this is designed to be for all intents and purposes the only piece of real of real estate that that a program participant owns. So is this pro what we're looking at here is this for someone for those first three years and then after year three they can move away and rent it for all the um guide you know the guard rails that you put in place. Is that what what I'm looking at? Yes.

Thank you. Okay. So, um the modification you added, um with the minimum buyins, skin in the game, um usually a three or 5% minimum is kind of proof that the person buying this has the ability to save money. And if we give 15 or 25% buy down and they clearly don't have to prove that, you know, to me, I think still showing a three or 5% by, you know, um skin in the game allows us and and those that are doing it to truly buy a property because they have the wherewithal to do some savings. And 3 and 5% is reasonable industrywide. um to get into a a FHA home or something. 3% that's that's pretty good. We do know that buying down the the um the mortgage assistance is helps people get in in that area. But I think our program, this is one of those things that staff did bring up and I do want to I mean it kind of hit to me is that it is going to let people with conventional mortgages hit that 3 or 5% instantly because they're getting $150,000 from us. and is that person even qualified not from a financial standpoint, but do they even have the wherewithal because they've proven that they can save that kind of money to have a 3% down payment? And so I'm I'm kind of curious on I I like that as a staff recommendation. I'd be curious to hear your disc.

We're getting into the liberating here for a minute. So let's let's hold up and Okay. I I I can quickly just chime in. I mean I our recommendation is largely coming from a like no surprises model,

right? I I I would hate for a buyer to present and not understand that that they do have to actually bring some amount of funding uh into the transaction. Uh and so even at 3% at the max at $750,000, I think that's like $22,500. It's not it's not a huge uh sum of money, but I would not want a buyer to be working through the program only to have their chosen lender inform them like no, we want to see 3% or 5% of the new restricted value. So, it's it's as much a full awareness uh perspective maybe more so than anything else because again different lenders may have uh different things that they want to see as part of the transaction. That was kind of my question on this when different I'm in the process my daughter's buying a house so I'm in up to my eyeballs and all this

all this stuff go mortgage but so if a lender says that they want 5%. Or let's say the lender says they want 3%.

And if we have in there a minimum of 5% how does that work from a lender standpoint? that that's where I mean our our recommendation is to just make is three sim it's either zero or three is the floor. Uh so so again and this would just be an administrative procedures. It would it would be more of a rule of thumb that that then than than maybe a requirement. I I think there is a place where essentially the lender you know communicates that they don't need to see uh that 3%. Um so we can give ourselves a little bit of an out uh in the administrative procedures as It's basically lender by lender. Yeah. Well, and and if there's any way to create a policy or procedure in that that gives us and sorry, we're back in the dialogue. Yeah.

But but just in the sense that if someone had if they buy down the property from $150,000, 3% of the remaining balance is enough for me because we're still trying to help people get in, right? That saves them quite a bit of cash that they could still have some skin in the game and maybe not the full monty but yes. What other questions do we have for Brad? And if we don't have any more

no more then let's open it up to public comment. Is there anybody in the audience or anyone online please raise your hand who would like to make a public comment. Okay hearing none. will close public comment and now we'll bring it back for deliberations. Councel Pacino.

Okay. Thank you. Just following the rules of engagement, y'all. Thank you. Um, no, it just it kind of warrants that I still want I think skipping the game is important and I but I would like to say that, you know, they get the benefit of us buying down this down payment assistance and then they still have to come up 3% of the remaining balance. I don't even need the 5%. I just want to know that they have the ability to save money.

As the only millennial kind of in the room, um, this just kind of reeks a little bit to me of avocado toasty e like it is not someone's fault that they are it's not a character flaw or that they simply don't have the the discipline to save up for a house. Okay, we live in a totally different time with buying a home. So yes, in principle I agree having skin in the game is important. I just want to stand on my soap box for a minute to like push back on the whole thing of like you need to prove that you can save because that really is not the experience of many of my peers or people younger than me.

How should I look at it? Um, I would look at it more from a policy point of view of what I I the way I think about I'm thinking about this is I'm trying to keep in mind what Gail had mentioned of how do we set higher standards? What is the ide like what is ideal and then peel back from there rather than keeping it wide open on this topic? I don't really know what that is like. I don't is there any risk to us if it's 0% versus 3% like is there like what is the benefit of having this

uh again tonight I'm mostly looking for I would call it policy direction on something that's actually not a policy item it is an administrative item it's just to sort of have something on the books on the administrative procedures as it relates to running the pilot program that the the primary risk uh council wintech is what I mentioned is that I I'd hate for so a prior to sort of start down the process, feel like they are at the door step to being qualified only to learn that they actually have to have make a number up $15,000 uh to bring uh in form of their own uh resources uh to the transaction. That's that's my main uh concern maybe more so than anything else

is to increase the chances of success like remove barriers if you set that expectation that when that asset comes it's Yeah. in part to because it varies so much lender by lender like so that it's so that you're ready to essentially I mean lender lenders are choosing folks whom they want to lend to and those same people are also choosing lenders uh so it gives folks as many options as possible to make uh the right connection isn't isn't it true that if if a lender says we don't need any additional down payment beyond the 15 or 25% that they're basing that off of the credit report of that particular buyer.

Yeah. And I, you know, I think the working assumption is that in most cases, if someone is taking advantage of the price capped uh restriction and and really has a 25% down payment to call it something at at the time of uh closing, they they're very likely to to hear that they may not have to bring additional uh funds uh to the transaction. And if that's okay with the lender, I would argue it should be okay with us. Yep. Yeah. No, thanks, Brian. Yep. The other thing uh that I wanted to ask a question I did forget about is that as we're moving forward with the cottonwoods is any of these funds it sounds like that's already deed restrict this is to buy deed restrictions that are already market rate or something like that right

correct and where programs I try to clean up by even my own language is that folks we are simply purchasing the deed restriction right so it really this only works when it's a market rate product that through this transaction becomes a deed restricted uh product. So that's really what we're doing is helping with that conversion. Well, thank you. I like it. Well, let's since we were talking about number four, can we answer number four here first? The city council wish to dictate a minimum buyer contribution for program participation or is that we said no, right?

Oh, four. Yes. No, I I mean, Brian, you you brings up a very good point and I do not want to keep I mean, I want to honor our citizens that live here and become residents that live here, residents that are part of the community. And I think that in so many ways, if whatever we can do to get them to they're going to they're going to be owners, they're going to be committed. Is this is this like partially an education component? And so how do we just incorporate education into this or is it that I that's the way I'm now thinking of it based on your conversation that it's it's more in the process of administering and early education and conversations with buyers who are looking to get qualified. Just make it very clear,

you know, they're different lenders are going to have different expectations. which acquis which restriction product you attempt to avail yourself has implications as to again what a lender is going to um require of the buyer up around. Yep. Yep. Okay. So, are are we okay on that one then? Yep. Yep. Okay. Let's go back then to the others. Uh number one, do we support the proposed modifications? I guess um well, let's just start there. Do we support the modifications that Brad has talked about in here? Is that a thumbs up from everyone? Thumbs up. Yeah, I do. Okay.

Should we be getting public com? My brain is going blank. Do we normally get public comment before we make these decision? We did ask for public comment. Okay. Sorry. I got to go to like went to my Yeah, I have the sugars. Okay. Would city council like to see any additional modifications or f before finalization of the deed restrictions? No. No. Nope. And any other modifications to the program or pilot phase required? No. No. Okay. Brad, carry on. Make it happen. Thanks, Brad. We have to vote though. Second about

I'll make a motion to um move forward with the second reading of the uh deed restriction uh agenda item number eight. second with uh the modifications uh listed in our discussion and not having a minimum buyer contribution. Okay. Is that clear, Julie? Okay. We have a motion by councelor Pacino, second by councelor Swintech. All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Okay. There you go. Now means passes 70.

That brings us to the Thank you, Brad. Appreciate it. Thank you. Yes. That brings us to a second reading of an ordinance approving a supplemental budget appropriation for 2026 using STR tax funds to acquire deed restriction through pilot purchase of deed restriction program. Kim Kim Weber, finance director. I don't have much to add other than this is a a second reading of the budget appropriation to uh fund the $3 million for the uh project that you just approved on the prior agenda item. Yeah. Do we have any questions for Kim? No.

All right. We'll open it up to public comment. Is there anybody in the room or anyone online? Please raise your hand if you're online if you'd like to make a public comment. Seeing no one, we'll close public comment. Bring it back to council for deliberations or a motion. Move to approve agenda item nine. Second. Okay, we have a motion by councelor Swinte, second by councelor Dixon. Um, all those in favor say I. I opposed. Okay, motion passes 4. Okay. Item I, City Attorney's Report. Jen, do we have anything

tonight? Okay, we'll move on from there to old business minutes from January 20th and February 3rd. Has everyone read those over? And do we have any revisions to those? If not, I'll entertain a motion to approve those minutes. Move to approve. Second. Motion by councelor Swinteek, second by councelor Pacino. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion passes 4. Is there any other business that we have for tonight? Then I'll ask for a motion to adjurnn. So moved.

No second. Second. post. It follows