Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

We'll go ahead and call to order the Longmont Planning Zoning Commission July 22nd meeting. First item is call to order or our series roll call.

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

We do. We'd like to take this time also to acknowledge the time and effort that Judd Haidt had put into the commission for we'll call it 12 years. He served a couple years as an alternate. He served on the commission. He served one year as the chair. So at this time, we'd like him to come forward. We do have your proclamation. I will go ahead and read it in recognition of your service to the Planning and Zoning Commission. This certificate is issued by the City of Longman and the Planning and Zoning Commission. And we also have... Two of your name tags.

Can we just do a profile picture next time?

Oh, because it's going to be confusing, isn't it? No. Because it's out of order. Okay. Okay.

Okay, we'll go ahead and move on. Next is public comment, public invited to be heard. This is for items that are non-quasi-judicial that are coming before, that are not coming before the board. And so we have one person, Amy Saunders. Please state your name and your address and you get five minutes.

I can wait to see him. I'm just putting my different hat on. OK, you ready? OK. Good evening, Chair Polin and commissioners. My name is Amy Saunders. I have lived at 1366 McClure Drive for almost 25 years and in Boulder County since 1975. So I will be recusing myself from 8b today. So my comments here are about that. I'm speaking solely today as a private citizen here. I am a mother of three, a college educator who teaches landscape architecture and sustainable site design, and an advocate for public transportation and meaningful public participation. OK. I support finding that the first in Ma

okay thank you miss saunders yes um nobody else signed up but i will open up for anybody else in the public who would like to come up and talk saying nobody come forward i'll go ahead and close out the public invited to be heard we'll move to the next item which is approval of the june 17 2026 minutes do we have any questions comments or motions commissioner saunders

Yay. Thank you, Chair. So I had a couple of comments for the minutes. For the record, last month on Tuesday, June 18, it was reported by Lyle London of the Times Call newspaper that I, Commissioner Saunders, was at and voted in support of the Longmont Greenway Northwest annexation Zoning and concept plan application that is incorrect. I was not at the June 17th 2026 Wednesday planning and zoning meeting and I did not vote for or against that application at that meeting So for the minutes of that June 17th meeting that we're talking about that I was not at however I did send a question via emai

But it just goes with the record of it, right? There's no back and forth in talking about it, but it goes with the record that I had asked that question of staff, and there was a response. So I think as part of public record, it needs to be included with the minutes.

But to the rest of the commissioners, I'm uncomfortable being singled out and not having my question be to the rest of the commissioners.

Well, except for the meeting minutes. Those are not finished. And that's why we have the draft that we get to if something got missed or there's something that's incorrect.

But the meeting would have had that question and response from staff. They had seen it. Not necessarily. So you're saying that other commissioners have had questions to staff that perhaps I have not seen?

So where's the deciding mark then when we see commissioner questions brought up before a meeting and we see the question and response right before a meeting. I can think of several occasions when Councilmember Popkin has asked questions as a commissioner, I'm so sorry, or any of us, and I've seen the question and answer response as a commissioner who wasn't involved in the question and answer response. So what deems it worthy, I guess?

Can I hear what the other commissioners feel about this?

I will say I have seen some of the questions because I've been copied sometimes when people have questions. What I have encouraged is in that regards is if you have a question that you feel will take some time for research, for something for the staff to find out, that's when I ask that you go ahead before the meeting and send an email to them with that question. But then I also then say, but then it's up to you to follow up in the meeting with their question.

So in the email, It was going to be provided a response from staff for the question, but it got directed to counsel with a confidential email where there was no, it was kind of, in my opinion, sort of blown off because this is what I'm saying. I'm uncomfortable kind of having this back and forth just between me. I don't want to dredge up this issue because it's obviously passed, but I feel that this was part of that meeting. And it wasn't a simple, because here's my problem. I couldn't come last minute. I had planned to come. And this was pretty critical in my mind for, it was a legal issue fo

don't know how we resolve this today but i would say moving forward and this is what has happened in the past if there's a commissioner who's had some questions regarding an item that they're not going to be able to attend they have forwarded me questions and i've asked those questions at the meeting on their behest

Oh, well, I could have done that. That would have been fine, right? But that I had in my mind thought, okay, well, they'll at least see the question and the answer from staff, and then they can make their own opinions about it. So I don't see the difference from sending it to chair versus sending it just to the rest of the commission.

I'm going to pass it over to Commissioner Earle. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I think a clarification a little bit, because I agree it's probably not something we can address in the minutes. I do think, in general, the questions, we've seen several of them forward to us. It is helpful to see them in advance if they're not in the packet already. Would that kind of communication go in the council packet? Because it is, you know, kind of a public comment from a not seated commissioner to the planner. So I'm just curious if it's going to be on the record.

Not the attorney-client privilege, the one to the staff.

Well, an email sent to the staff planner, like a public email sent to the staff planner goes into the packet. Correct. And so does that, you know, Commissioner Saunders not, as a commissioner at that meeting, does that become a public comment that goes in the packet for council? It's a public record.

Sure, if you can, but we're human and stuff happens, right? And so that's what I'm saying. It felt very corralled, my comment, my question. It started being addressed by Senior Planner Cote and was going to bring in Rachel. And then I said, yeah, I would like to hear the reasoning on this. And then I got an email from council saying, with the confidentiality thing on it with just being directed at me, which wasn't really helpful for the question because I didn't get the answer from Planner Cote or from Rachel. But again, I understand it was last minute. And again, I think that my intent was fo

But isn't that ex parte communication between us?

And so are these emails anyway, right? My emails anyway are still public record no matter what to the city. Yeah. Okay.

For the commission, you mean? Legal advice for the commission?

Okay. Well, I was really surprised to get that all of a sudden email from counsel. So I don't, I'm just not, I'm not comfortable with it just being directed at me and not having any of the other commissioners on it because you're not my lawyer, right? You're the commission lawyer, right? Yes, I'm so sorry. No, no, I'm sorry. I want to make sure. Thank you for clarifying. Thank you for clarifying. Yes.

Yes. So because I would love to know their input on this, right? Because it's not it's not a personal issue. It's just it was a legal issue on irrigation dishes. So like that's what I'm having trouble with because it just it seems so benign. I mean, last minute, but I already said I get if it's last minute, you can't answer. But then it was corralled. So so that being said how do i walk this back i guess if i can't add these to the minutes a motion was never made to add it to the minute correct so you don't have to walk back okay so then i would like to move to approve the june 17 minutes as t

We have a motion. Do we have a second? Commissioner Earle? We have a motion. We have a second. Any other comments, questions? Seeing none, we'll go ahead and take a vote.

Thank you very much. We'll go ahead and move. There are no public hearing items for today, so we'll move to the next item, which is other business. The first item is amendments to the City of Longmont Land Development Code, Section 1505080J, bicycle parking. This is Transportation Planner Ben Ortiz presenting.

Do we have any, oh, Commissioner Earl, or Vice Chair Earl, I should say.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This will be very brief. Ben, just thank you. I'm really happy with the way that this has been reworded. I appreciate the efforts of you, staff, and TAB for what you guys have come up with. So, no, thank you. I think it's great, and you incorporated the feedback. So I really appreciate that.

Oh, thank you, Chair. I have a question for you planner Ortiz. Would you agree that these amendments improve the usability of bicycle parking while still maintaining the city's long term goal of encouraging multimodal transportation? Perfect. Follow up question. And these revisions don't reduce the city's commitment to active transportation. They simply make implementation more practical for different development types.

Excellent. Thank you. From my review and analysis of agenda item 8A, the amendment to the city's land development code for bicycle parking, I appreciate the staff's work incorporating the commission's comments from May. I believe these revisions strike an appropriate balance between encouraging active transportation and providing practical implement standards for development. As Envision Longmont specifically calls for providing bicycle parking as strategic locations to support bicycling as viable means of active transportation, and it emphasizes creating a transportation system that is safe,

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would move that we adopt PZR 202614B, a resolution of the Planning and Zoning Commission recommending approval of Chapter 1505080J, Bicycle Parking with Conditions. Thank you very much.

Do we have a second? Commissioner Edgley-Wells? We have a motion. We have a second. Are there any other further questions, comments? Seeing nobody hop on, I'll go ahead and let's take a vote.

Very good, this item will now be forwarded to the Longmont City Council for action. If you are unfamiliar with council procedures and intend to appear before city council, please contact the planning division for further information at 303-651-8330. That concludes item 8A, and before we go to item 8B, Commissioner Saunders.

Thank you, Chair. So for 8A, before 8B, thank you for the correction, before the consideration of 8B, I'd like to disclose a potential perceived conflict of interest. I currently have an at-will contract with the Westminster campus of Front Range Community College. While I have no involvement with this project and any future professional benefit is speculative, I believe accrual is the most appropriate course to avoid even the appearance of conflict Accordingly, I will recuse myself from the commission's decision and vote on the agenda item AB. As a Longmont resident, however, I reserve my rig

Thank you very much, Commissioner Saunders. We'll go ahead and move to item 8B, First and Main Urban Renewal Plan Area. Executive Director of the Longmont Urban Renewal Authority and Assistant City Manager, Jennifer Uten. Is that correct? Did I say that right? Redevelopment and Revitalization Manager, Katie Faltes.

Thanks. okay thank you uh this is not a public item so we don't have public comment and we'll go straight to comments and questions from the commission uh first we oh yep commission our uh councilman popkin

Thank you, chair. I just wanted to piggyback off of what Jen was just sharing there as I was the person who made the comment of like, we're not going to disclose the developer for that. It wasn't because it had no relation to the first and main project. I can't put a finer point on that. It was entirely unrelated to it. And this is not the fault of anyone who made a public comment today. This is just purely related to how the article kind of told the story on this. That was a comment made to another commissioner who was asking about, this was a discussion about an entirely different parcel in

Thank you for the clarification. Next, we'll move to Commissioner Wang.

Hi, thank you. I have a couple of questions about, I guess, clarifying the first and main properties right now. They're currently in the Southeast Longmont Urban Renewal Plan. Is that correct? It's currently in the SLRP plan? Correct. So and they will be removed in September. via a minor modification to its own plan. Is that correct? With a minor modification, with a process with a minor modification, does that need to go through the planning and zoning again to review it to see if it fits with the comprehensive plan?

It doesn't. Okay. The other question I have is why are you separating this piece of property out into its own distinct area?

All right. Okay, thank you. Yeah, because I was wondering, because, I mean, it's a huge boundary, but you could have the TIFF anywhere inside within the slurp to be used in the first domain, but because of the new laws...

Okay. Okay, thank you. Um, the other question I have is, um, right now, this first and main area is currently zoned as mu downtown mix us downtown. I know that at the previous in the May, Laura meeting, we've talked about mu IR, the innovation and redevelopment zoning. Are you looking to rezone this area into mu IR in the future?

Okay, so MUIR is created in anticipation maybe this will be lumped into that area. That is accurate. Okay, thank you. And then the final question I have is, so previously with the projects that came into planning and zoning, we've had a concept plan that comes to us, and it's very, I wouldn't say it's super detailed, but it has boundaries, it has plans of where the exits are, the streets, alignments, what... you know, where things are with this actual plan here. It's kind of generic. It doesn't say it's not very detailed as like It doesn't have a concept plan of what we've are familiar with, l

okay so if i want to rephrase this this plan is more of a framework on how to deal with a blight in the area versus an actual how to deal with the development correct okay thank you commissioner edgley wells

Thank you chair. Um, my questions are related to the impact report, so I don't know who I should, um, address those questions too. And I have several and um, okay, so I'm just going to get started. Okay. So, uh, when transportation hubs are added, What impacts are there on public safety? I did read in the report that there's going to be assumed minimal impact. But in the history of having transportation hubs added into a city, what sort of patterns are you seeing with public safety? Do you see increased crime? Do you see things like that?

infrastructure being built for housing the assumption that that's the number of residents that will come in what impacts on um transit housing uh will be seen if per unit is higher per person like what how do you forecast the impacts of that if it's more than 1.8 and do you see foresee good or bad impacts if that number is on the conservative side

Well, okay. So beyond that question, I'm just trying to get a better understanding and a better feeling of what these impacts could potentially mean. Because I, so this gap here, so your assessed valuation and your baseline, right? So the in-between is the money generated, correct? Yes. Right.

So that is an assumption that this plan is 100% successful. That's something that I read in the impact report is that these numbers are assumed based on success of the projections in this report. So that's why I'm asking kind of these roundabout questions is because 100% success rate is pretty certain. Anyway, so my question was if the number of residents were to be higher or lower based on whether the infrastructure being built for housing, which I did read is going to be market rate apartments, what that would potentially look like. I know it's a screenshot. It's just all of these things are

Yeah, it's very interesting. I'm learning so much about this, and I just find it very interesting. So... basically what I need to reframe my thinking around what this impact report is actually showing me. So these developments are hopefully going to be developed, right? And so that is the assessed value, not necessarily the number of resident influx or the amount of people that occupy or the amount of students. That's not what this report is saying. This is purely the assessed value on the development that this takes place. So I'm just hoping that I'm reframing that correctly. I have one last

Okay. Okay. Well, I'm wondering how this last comment I have specifically works and because I did see in the impact report some county numbers in there as well. So this relates to the housing that's going to be made and how its market rate apartments that is projected to be built. In 2023, the county passed an affordable and attainable Housing tax and so I'm just wondering if that is a missed opportunity in creating housing if all of the housing projected to be built is market rate apartments Thanks for that question and I think lots of folks have have had that question including folks on the

I really appreciate your time. Thank you for explaining all that to me. Thanks.

All right, thank you. I have a two-part question, more so to kind of have it on the record, and also I think it's a helpful way to understand this. one part one, is there maybe, um, is there an example, um, maybe a really big example of a previous successful Laura project in Longmont? And then the other question, the part two of that question, if there is just like, do, do the, does the success, like, because you're getting the future, like if the more successful it is down the line, the more incumbents generating down the line, um, that the more like that, the better off, the more funds there

Thank you, Chair. Hi. Okay. So this time clock, right, I have a question. So, the funding in place for these TIFs is going to generate funding for these taxing districts and it also includes necessary funding from public and private partnerships. Is that what I'm reading correctly?

Thank you. So after the 25 years, the funding runs out with these taxing districts and public-private partnerships?

So the infrastructure and place in these TIF areas, how are those maintained and funded if the funding after 25 years goes back to the original districts?

Councilman Popkin. Thank you, Chair. And thank you, Commissioners, for the really thoughtful questions and getting into the weeds on this. I think you're doing the public a service in these conversations, as grueling as it might be to work through some of that. So I appreciate that. I just wanted to clarify, we're using terms like taxes, funding, and financing very loosely here. And maybe I can add a little bit more precision here in this conversation. So a tax increment financing agreement is really a financing agreement for a development project. That's obviously not what the commission is d

Okay, thank you. Commissioner Wang. thanks chair um a couple of comments um in the impact report that was included in our package mentioned a conditions and blight study which we did not get attachment on but if anybody wants to go out and look at it it is a part of the packet from the laura meeting on march 31st 2026. if you want to see how they determine what's blight um the other comment and i just want to voice um and it was brought up at the Laura meeting in May about the types of housing that will be going into this area and I know this is out of our control based on you know constructio

The question I have is pretty much like with market rate and like that. I wasn't even referring specifically to affordable housing for sale, but more like market rate for sale. It sounds like you've been talking about right now you're planning this as a penciling out for rentals only. But do you foresee anything with developers saying, hey, we might want to build some for sale market rate units?

Commissioner Ling. Thank you, Chair. To follow up on that question, did the state law change recently on the construction defects? It's a C word, right? We're talking condos. So... I mean, I know that's from a developer's perspective. They kind of shy away from those just because it opens up to liability. So I can see in this part of town, you're not going to find a lot of single attached dwellings. It's going to be a multi-tenant unit. So it's either going to be a rental or a condo kind of situation. Did the state not make that a little less of a liability for builders going forward? I'm not

Okay, I would just like to say at this time, my one comment on this is a very simple comment. I am for this project, and it's really just basically because it is consistent with the city's comprehensive plan, and I will be voting to approve of the plan. That is where I'm at right now. We'll go to Vice Chair Earle. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Great transition too. I'm going to make a motion in a second. I would love to see concept plans. I would love to see a lot of renderings and exactly what this is. I recognize that is not the time and place for it. I'm very excited to get those to come back to us when it is appropriate and have a whole bunch of questions about it at that point. But excited for the work you guys are doing on it and really look forward to seeing it. With that, I'm going to make a motion that we adopt PZR 202615A, a resolution of the Planning and Zoning Commission recommending approval of the first and main urban

Seeing none, Jane, let's go ahead and take a vote.

Thank you very much. And there's nothing for me to read at the end of this one? nope okay uh so we are now moving to the next item and welcome back commissioner saunders which is final call public invited to be heard saying nobody come forward i'll go ahead and close out public invited to be heard final call next is items from the commission commissioner saunders

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, commissioners and staff, for letting me try a new system of writing my comments first before. It's a little bit tricky. It seems a little bit more nerve-wracking to do it that way, actually. I just wanted to appreciate the conversation that we had earlier about emails, and I'm hoping that we can have that conversation before the end of the year. I would really love to hear Chair Polin's and with his experience. on the board for the many years?

Yeah, so if we could do that before December, that would be great. I would really appreciate it. Thank you.

Vice Chair Earle. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll be brief. Grant, you're tired of me saying this. I'm very much still looking forward to our single family attached discussion. I hope that is coming up soon. I also second Commissioner Saunders' comment that I hope we can have an executive session regarding legal advice on communication.

That's all. Thank you. Do we have any other? If not, items from Council Representative Popkin. Oh, sorry.

I don't think I have too much to add here. Just wanted to thank everyone for engaging on the urban rental topics are complicated and we're going to be seeing more of them. So continue to get used to this and please don't hesitate to send staff or myself questions as you have them and we can get them whether it's in between meetings on the broader themes or topics or on specific packet items, of course, as you as you always do with staff. So just thank you. Thank you there. The next urban renewal meeting, in case you're curious, I believe it will be settled on the 18th. Yeah, it will be Tuesday

Who are the four others? It's county, school district, and at-large representative, and? Yeah. Yes. So it's a group of 11 there. You're always welcome to attend and just to listen in, especially since a lot of what gets discussed there will come to and through PNC at different times. So you're always welcome. We also have had discussions about adaptive reuse, about different types of housing, about TIF financing. I think we'll have a meeting probably in November where we're going to have a little bit of a feature on tax increment financing use cases in the past. So if that is of interest to an

Thank you. And then I just want to say thanks to staff, Katie and Jen in the back, Grant and Jeremy up front here. There are a lot of moving parts with the Urban Renewal Authority pieces and the agreements, especially on the timeline. So thanks for the extra work on that.

Okay. Thank you. Items from Planning Director Grant Pendlin.

And I think that is it for me. Thank you very much. And we are now in adjournment.