Remarks by Drew Morris
61 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 3
- Play at 48:33
“Good evening, everyone. I'd love to echo fellow council members. Thank you to our Thornton PD for the work you do every day. As we saw Sunday, any given day brings a variety of dangers for our officers. We're thankful for you, thankful for protecting our city, and we'll continue to support however we can. Yesterday, Councilmember Byrd and I were able to join a neighborhood meeting, as he mentioned, about some of the issues that residents next door to the Aylor Open Space and Nature Library have experienced. I just want to give a shout out to Bob and Kendrick from our parks team, who took the…”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 1:29:37
“Hey, Mayor Pro Tem, I clicked my button.”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 1:29:43
“I did that right. I did have a question. For other TOD sites, for the applicant that you've developed, or similar sites, can you tell us about the commercial uses that are there now?”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 1:30:38
“building commercial. I know that you have it potentially incorporated into the TOD site. Do you have the capability of building commercial, or is it just going to be a pad site available for another developer?”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 1:31:01
“Have you identified anyone that might meet that criteria for you?”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 1:55:12
“I did have a couple Questions, and maybe as a freshman councilman, I guess we'll call it. It's a great term. You know, as we're looking at a zoning approval, maybe for the city attorney, can we make a zoning approval conditional upon a few agreements or restrictions?”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 1:55:45
“Well, let me talk through a couple ideas then. And I know that one of the big phrases in our code, and we mentioned it in the, or staff or the applicant mentioned it in the presentation, quote, as appropriate based on the immediate neighborhood context, end quote. And so based on that, I had, I guess, a couple questions or ideas I want to throw out to the council and see if there's something that we can potentially incorporate. For the area that is bordering the existing neighborhoods, can we look at limiting that area to one story within the 150 foot buffer area? Because what I noticed in…”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 1:58:23
“Okay, great. Can we discuss that? Four topics.”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 2:00:13
“Got it. But the applicant does have to stay within those ranges that are showing right now, like 8 to 12 units per acre for the single-family detached and attached?”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 2:00:50
“vote the voting process choose to designate a that number based on the stamp plan. And of course, I want to incorporate the applicant in this discussion too, if they think that they can say what that minimum number is.”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 2:01:23
“Has it, and I'm sorry that these questions are coming up tonight. I know there's a lot here. Has it never been a part of a zoning approval process to add conditions to the approval where we designate certain things as a council?”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 2:01:57
“Okay. I guess then the question would be to the applicant on those four things. Let's start with question number one. For the area bordering the existing neighborhoods, would you be willing to limit your height to one story along that adjacent neighborhood within that setback buffer?”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 2:03:32
“Sure. Well, a similar topic for the remaining areas, limiting that to two stories to maintain that neighborhood context of the surrounding area.”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 2:04:25
“What I'm trying to find here is a meaningful compromise to the concerns that the residents have brought up and also to try to accomplish the same mission of we understand it's TOD. We understand that there's the ability to increase density in some capacity, but it doesn't have to be all without our input and say. And I understand what the stamp says, and I understand that as a planning document, but ultimately we are city council, and we do have the ability At least my understanding is that we have the ability to set some of these parameters as part of the zoning, because right now the…”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 2:07:38
“may not be appropriate for whatever that future development is if that makes sense it does thank you um appreciate the feedback i appreciate you guys dialogue on dialoguing on this right now uh then the fourth question was uh if and maybe staff can remind me of the minimum percentage of green space open space that's required in any uh any development and then Based on that, the question is for us, do we do we have the ability to increase that percentage for the particular site as part of the rezoning?”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 2:09:07
“Okay. So right now we don't have the ability to set something specific because we don't know what that number is, but would the applicant, does the applicant have an idea of what would make sense to include as part of this process based on preliminary plans? I know we're not touching on that, but I'm looking for if there is an agreement you can come to.”
City Council · Oct 13, 2026
- Play at 39:47
“Good evening, everyone. I've had the chance to participate in a number of community events over the last few weeks, including ribbon cuttings and ground breakings. Always grateful for the opportunity to be out in the community. I especially want to recognize the 9-11 remembrance ceremonies I was able to attend. The first was at the Skyview campus, hosted by Mapleton's Air Force JROTC cadets. They did an outstanding job honoring the lives lost, the first responders, and other heroes, and the significance of that day for all those in attendance. I also want to thank our Thornton Fire and…”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 5:55
“Yeah, just to echo Council Member Alge, grateful to see this introduced here and happy to support it.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:08:43
“It's hard to follow that because we're going to have a lot of similarities in what we experience. So here we go. All right, I have a few committee updates and thank yous for my comments tonight. First, I want to thank our city staff and the residents who joined us for the recent Ward 4 meeting at Thorn Creek Golf Course. The resident attendance was outstanding and the weather that night and sunset views were hard to beat. Appreciate the staff who provided updates on upcoming capital projects, our water supply, public safety, and stamps. It was an engaging and informative evening and I'm…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:42:26
“I just have a series of questions like to ask the staff. First one, are there any current applications that have been submitted to our city that are active?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:42:50
“Got it. Are there any conversations happening with any data centers, developers who are interested in building a data center in Thornton?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:43:01
“Would you say that there is an imminent danger of a data center being built in our city right now?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:43:13
“Okay. This might be for the city attorney. Are there any recent Colorado cases where pending ordinance doctrine was challenged or overturned for a city?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:43:45
“Sure. Thank you. Let's see. In Thornton's history, have we ever used a moratorium in response to similar resident concerns around water use, environmental impact, traffic, infrastructure concerns, noise, pollution when it came to projects like apartments, warehouses, or other commercial development?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:44:25
“If we were to instead propose a resolution that directed staff to create new regulations that govern the construction and operations of data centers in our city, would this also accomplish the same goal of creating regulations to protect our city, its residents, and its resources?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026