Town Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

These kids are just doing this spitefully. It's just like a drag strip right there, right on Victoria. So that's my comment for today.

Thank you very much, Ms. Wiggins. Council, bear with me for a second. Thank you to the two community members. Appreciate you addressing your government. Is there any other member of the public wishing to address your government this evening? Seeing none, we'll close public comment at 7.09 and move on to item three, reports, items, and comments from mayor and council. Councilwoman Hefty, would you like to start us, please?

Yes. Good evening. Thank you for coming, members of the public. Appreciate that. And appreciate your comments as well. We always like to hear from members of the public what's happening in our community. Thank you. We did have the Civic Center celebration for the Civic Center Town of Parker Academy this past week. And all of us made that. That was a four-hour kickoff at the schoolhouse. And the mayor and the town manager spoke along with other leaders at that event. I also attended the Parker Advent Hospital inpatient advocacy meeting for a separate board that I'm on that hospital asked me to be on to discuss how to beautify the hospital, the interior of the hospital, and the grounds. We also had the Confluence Company topping out celebration in downtown Parker, right across from the library. This was a celebration for the progress that Confluence Company is making on building out downtown Parker, one of the main contractors. And we also had the town hall opening celebration as well that all of us came to. The mayor did speak at that as well as our town manager and the construction company, JHL Construction. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Hefta. Mr. Franzen, please.

attendance with councilmember Hefta on several of those events one that I also attended was the legacy campus ribbon-cutting really exciting to see what what the school district has done with that campus you know out on Lincoln it's it's in the lone tree but that facility serves a ton of Parker students Really need to see excited for that educational opportunity for kids who maybe don't have a college path.

So That's it.

Thank you. Mr. Franzen.

Mr. Diak, please Thank you at e 470 the the top or the item of note would be Continuing the road widening on e 470 north from 104th to i-76 The early stages, it's a design-build CMGC is the term. That's where the authority works hand-in-hand with the contractor to get the best pricing. That is just starting up. We passed a contract amendment and a task order to get construction management services on the team. So look forward to that within the next couple of years, getting going and hopefully creating more roadway to reduce congestion on the north side of town. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Ms. Wilkes, please.

So I attended a ribbon cutting for the Grade Power Learning Center, which was phenomenal. They do caterized, or I don't know if caterized is the best word. We're going to say they do customized tutoring for people from all ages. And one of the things that I loved about it is they actually have somebody on staff that is tutoring our military. So in order to move up in the military ranks, you have to pass a certain And so he's actually tutoring these military people and two of them scored the highest out of their whole group after doing this tutoring. So they get to move on and apply for different leadership levels in the military, which I didn't even know you had to take a comprehension test to do that. So I just thought that was incredible. I sit on the Denver Metro Association of Realtors government affairs committee board and we had our meeting last week and we're specifically focusing on Saying attainable housing and affordable housing is too broad of a picture We're specifically focusing on what does it take on the legislative side to make adjustments to the laws that are prohibiting these? entry-level homes from coming in and so that's our that's our main focus with that and And then the Parker night out with our PD. I wasn't able to attend because I had a sick kiddo. However, I heard it was a phenomenal night and I saw the pictures and it looked like everyone had a great time with that. So I just want to give kudos because we always do a wonderful job of making sure that people can come and interact and our citizens get to see what it's about and the kids just have a great time.

Thank you, Ms. Wilkes. Ms. Barrington, please.

I did a lot of those same things too and I will just pass the mic to you.

You had one that I left off specifically.

I also attended the downtown business alliance monthly meeting on Wednesday but a lot of the things that other council members have already discussed. So I'm opening up the mic to council member Hendricks again because he's always got such a full schedule to report.

I am ditto.

Thank you, Mr. Hendricks. Thank you, Ms. Barrington. For myself, last week started on Wednesday. I had the Metro Mayor's full caucus, which is 38 Metro Mayors meet together in a room every month and discuss issues pertaining to all of us, whether that be e-bikes or whatever the case may be. WE HAD NINE NEWS THERE TO TALK ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION. ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION. AND THEN FOLLOWED ON BY FRIDAY WE AND THEN FOLLOWED ON BY FRIDAY WE HAD THE CITY OF COMMERCE CITY HAD THE CITY OF COMMERCE CITY CAME DOWN AND CITY MANAGER, FOUR CAME DOWN AND CITY MANAGER, FOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS, ECONOMIC ELECTED OFFICIALS, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TEAM TO WALK MAIN DEVELOPMENT TEAM TO WALK MAIN STREET TO SEE WHAT IT IS WE'VE STREET TO SEE WHAT IT IS WE'VE DONE DOWN HERE AND HOW IT'S DONE DOWN HERE AND HOW IT'S SPARKED THE ART AND THE THAT HAVE HAPPENED DOWNTOWN. SO THEY WERE VERY CURIOUS AND SO THEY WERE VERY CURIOUS AND WANTED TO KNOW WHAT WE DID. WANTED TO KNOW WHAT WE DID. SO WE SPENT THREE HOURS WITH THEM SO WE SPENT THREE HOURS WITH THEM AND HAD A GREAT MID-MORNING WITH AND HAD A GREAT MID-MORNING WITH COMMERCE CITY. COMMERCE CITY. GOT TO SHOW OFF OUR TOWN, WHICH GOT TO SHOW OFF OUR TOWN, WHICH IS ALWAYS FUN. IS ALWAYS FUN. LET'S SEE. I HAD THE HONOR AS A MAYOR TO SIT DOWN ON A PANEL OF SEVEN MAYORS IN FRONT OF A YOUNG LEADERSHIP GROUP. 25 OF THE MEMBERS WERE GERMAN EXCHANGE BUSINESS PEOPLE AND THE OTHER 25 WERE AMERICAN BUSINESS FOLK AGED BETWEEN 25 AND 35, I BELIEVE. And we talked about our communities and the issues facing us and what we can do in our state to make it better. Great group, incredibly brilliant, great questions. Got to do breakout and sit with a table of them for half an hour and just incredible young minds. Then I was on a CML Zoom, the last step to CML hiring a deputy manager, and the decision was made, and Kevin Ballmer has hired Evelyn Baker to be the new deputy manager of CML. LEGACY CAMPUS RIBBON CUTTING AS WAS STATED. EAST MAIN TOPPING OUT AND THEN THE TOWN HALL RIBBON CUTTING INCREDIBLY WELL ATTENDED. GOT TO SEE SOME OLD FACES, OLD ELECTEDS FOR THE TOWN OF PARKER. WE GOT TO SEE SOME SOME FOLKS FROM THE STATE AND SOME OTHER TOWNS WERE HERE. SO JUST AN INCREDIBLE EVENT. I STARTED THAT MORNING THOUGH WITH RIBBON CUTTING FOR SHAKE SHACK. which is in the former Wendy's space next to Chick-fil-A, up by the hospital. So great business, great core principles. And just an honor to stand there. The GM, by the way, is a Parkerite. And so really, really cool that he got his store in his own town. AND THEN THURSDAY I HEADED DOWN TO ALAMOSA AND SPENT ALL EVENING, THURSDAY EVENING AND FRIDAY IN ALAMOSA WITH METROPOLITAN, I'M SORRY, MUNICIPAL LEADERSHIP ACADEMY. LEARNED ABOUT GOOD GOVERNANCE AND SAT WITH A ROOM OF 23 OTHER ELECTED OFFICIALS TO SHARE WHAT WE DO AND HOW WE DO IT AND WHY WE DO IT. JUST AN INCREDIBLE EVENT. ANY TIME I CAN GET DOWN TO THE VALLEY, TRULY ENJOY IT. BEAUTIFUL PART OF COLORADO. And that was my two weeks. Next up in front of us, council, is consent agenda. Consent agenda items are considered to be routine and will be enacted with one motion and vote. There will be no separate discussion for consent agenda items unless council votes to remove an item for individual discussion. Ordinances on the consent agenda are for introduction only and will not be removed for discussion. Council, in front of you are three items. I would entertain a motion on consent agenda.

I move to approve consent agenda items A through C. I have a motion from Wilkes.

Do I have a second?

Second.

I have a second from Hendrix. Hendrix, how do you vote? Yes. Barrington? Yes. Wilkes? Aye. Dyack? Yes. Franzen? Yes. And Hafta? Yes. And consensus agenda passes unanimously. Next up, our one and only item in front of us this evening, item five, ordinances. Ordinance number 3.375.1 on second reading. a bill for an ordinance affirming the passage of emergency ordinance number 3.375 series of 2026, a bill for an emergency ordinance to impose a temporary suspension for nine months in duration on the acceptance and processing of any application for any land use approval or building permit for the development or construction of drone dispatch and delivery facilities or related use within the corporate limits of the town of Parker. Presenting tonight, acting town attorney Lindsay Jordan.

Good evening council and mayor We're here tonight for the ordinance that was just read into the record which is the completion of a formality of a charter provision in which you will Vote on whether you will affirm an emergency ordinance that you passed on July 20th pursuant to your charter section 7.6 all emergency motions shall not be in effect longer than 90 days after passage unless town council by subsequent ordinance affirms the emergency ordinance for a longer period than 90 days that's what we're here to do today we're here to affirm the emergency ordinance that was passed in July or on July 20th which extended an emergency that 90 days so the emergency motion that you are emergency ordinance that you passed in July goes for nine months. And so without this affirming of that emergency ordinance to go past 90 days, it would expire and community development would have to come back in 90 days and get to that emergency order. I keep saying motion, so sorry, old litigator in me, ordinance before you. What this allows is this allows for that emergency ordinance that puts that temporary suspension on accepting and processing land use applications for drone delivery facility or dispatch for nine months rather than the 90 days. The reason that community development needs it for the nine months is that this will give them adequate time for them to work with consultants to find out what are the best regulations that would comply with the FAA, with state law, Also, it allows them to have proper outreach with the community so that they can have community public feedback on what it would look like to have this kind of facility and dispatch centers in Parker, as well as having interviews and working with stakeholders. If the 90 days won't give them enough time, then we're also going to run into holidays, right? So as we get closer to the holiday seasons, it's harder to coordinate schedules. So allowing this nine months suspension gives them the adequate time that they don't do a knee-jerk reaction regulation, that it's something that can be worked with and it best serves the community. It has been in the past used before when the town needed to consult its ordinance on storage units. So this is not a new thing. This is something that you have used in the past. This is now just that formalizing the emergency ordinance to go past that 90 days. So you've already discussed the merits of what that temporary prohibition is. Now we're just here to affirm the fact that it's okay for it to go for nine months other than the 90 days. And so I would move for you to approve this ordinance.

Thank you, Madam Town Attorney. We'll start with questions for the staff. Todd, would you like to start us, please? No questions. Ms. Barrington, any questions?

A couple questions. Do we even know what we can regulate? I know that's a pretty broad question, but because the FAA regulates the airspace, we can just talk about noise. That's just like an example.

So part of it would be for them to work with consultants that have done this in other jurisdictions. We can regulate hours of operations. We can regulate the... where the facilities are located, things like that, which right now is not in the code. Right now it's basically all you could regulate would be screening and noise, and that's it. So this allows them to work with the consultants who have the experience with this kind of facility on where's the best place to put them, how can you regulate it so that it doesn't interfere with public safety or privacy, like it just shows you, like yeah, you can't regulate the airspace per se, but you can put regulations in place to make sure that that kind of business is best suited for the community. And so they can do their job, but also not have it in locations that are not desirable for the community. And so that's going to take longer than 90 days. Sure, sure.

So, but instead of waiting for the whole nine months, will we get an update before, as it's going, or does the whole study have to happen first?

So the goal is that they would have the ordinance to present to you within that nine months, but... There will be updates. If there's needs for a study session to tell you this is the direction in which it's going, I am sure community development would be on board with that. But the goal is when this expires is that there will be an ordinance that they have ready to present to you so that it can go into effect. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Barrett. Ms. Wilkes, please.

Yeah, I just want to make sure everybody is clear. We're not saying no to these businesses coming in. What we're saying is we need time to make a highly educated decision. And we don't have the time to do that right now. So rather than making a knee jerk decision or allowing something to slip through the cracks, we need time to do our due diligence to make sure we're educated before we can make a decision that's gonna impact the town, is that correct?

Would you like to frame that?

Thank you, nevermind.

That is correct. Technology has evolved quicker than the code has. Okay, perfect, thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Wilkes. Mr. Dyack.

No questions.

Sorry, Mr. Franson. One question, more clarity. So this is, We have a current emergency ordinance that we passed in July, as you outlined. Town, our home rule, Chapter?

Charter.

Charter. Thank you. Charter. Our home rule charter basically says that we have to then now pass a secondary ordinance that extends beyond that 90 days. And we're doing this before the 90 days expires. Correct. And we're pushing it to nine months. Correct. In total, not nine months from now. Correct. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Franzen. Ms. Hefta, please.

No questions.

Thank you very much. With that, we'll open up public comment at 725. Any member of the public wishing to address counsel on this specific item, please make yourself known. Seeing none, we'll close public comment at 725 and go back for deliberation. Ms. Hefti, would you like to start us, please?

yes we heard the merits of this matter back in July about the drone delivery system so we really don't need to go over those anymore but what I would like to say in general is that Parker and this council strives to be thoughtful about what we introduce into the town and this is something new with the drone delivery and And when we need to make improvements to existing things in the town as well, we do that. We are a proactive council. We listen to our residents, and we do take action. And the mayor is excellent about getting back to our residents on a variety of matters. And this is something that we need to take our time with right now to figure out how we're going to move forward with drone delivery, and that's what we're doing. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilman Hefto, very much. Mr. Franzen, please.

Again, I kind of set this up in the question, right? We already have a 90-day ordinance imposed. The intent when we discussed this in July was nine months, and this is just ratifying what we had already intended to do so that we're meeting our charter.

Thank you, Mr. Frantz. Mr. Dyack?

Yeah. To build, I think for us, as technology or opportunities are presented to us, we want to ensure that the long range effects or unintended consequences Are not negative or detrimental to the community When when things like this come the first of its of its nature of its sort We need to make sure that we fully understand Research get with consultants and do things in the best interest of the community. So we don't have Any things that we approved that would ultimately create challenges for our citizens So, thank you Thank you, Mr. Dyack. Councilwoman Wilkes, please.

I mean, I don't need to reiterate what's already been said. At the end of the day, we're going to do what's right, and we're going to take our time to make sure that the decision we make is right for everybody. So I'm in support of this.

Thank you, Ms. Wilkes. Ms. Barrington, please.

I continue to support this moratorium. I just think we don't even know what we don't know. And the technology is moving so fast that I think it's very reasonable, nine months is a reasonable time to figure this out.

Thank you, Ms. Barrington. Mr. Hendricks? I'm in support as well. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Council, I understand I wasn't here on the 20th, but looking into this prior and then after the fact, there are a lot of towns that are facing this very question. And this nine months gives us a chance to let some of those challenges work their way through. And maybe there is more powers than we recognize currently, but we'll find that out at a later date. And we don't want to be first to the table. So I'd appreciate a motion here.

I move to approve ordinance number 3.375.1 on second reading.

Second. I have a motion from Wilkes and a second from Franzen. Hendrix, how do you vote? Yes. Barrington?

Yes. Wilkes? Aye.

Dyak? Yes. Franzen? Yes. Hefta? Yes. And that passes unanimously. And unfortunately for the gentleman in the back that just walked out, there is no further business in front of this council, and we are adjourned.