City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Good evening and welcome to the Westminster City Council meeting of July 27th, 2026. Please stand and join us in the pledge. Thank you for joining us this evening. Please remember our meetings are governed by the rules of decorum posted inside chamber doors. We ask all attendees to maintain a respectful environment. No disruptions, threats, or audible expressions of support or opposition are permitted. Signs and placards are prohibited and all attendees must remain seated in designated areas. If you wish to speak during public comment, please sign up in the lobby. Sign up closes at 6.45 p.m. Roll call, please.

Councillor Barajas. Here. Mayor Carmelia. Here. Councillor Azadi. Here. Councillor Haught. Present. Councillor Ireland. Here. Councillor Johnson.

Here.

And Mayor Pro Tem Nurmela. Here. Thank you so much. Before we have a motion for the minutes, we have a couple items on the agenda that may be rearranged. Do I have a motion on item 12A on whether it will be continued to August 10th? Councillor Johnson.

Thank you, Mayor. I move to retable Counselor's Bill No. 26 to amend the various sections of Title I, VI, and X of the Westminster Municipal Code concerning police regulations, offense classifications, and penalties to align with the Colorado statutes and the Colorado Supreme Court's decision in People v. Camp to our August 10, 2026 meeting. Counselor I need you to remove it from the table first, okay Then I will withdraw that motion and move to remove counselors bill 26 from the table Thank You mayor Pro Tem second, thank you.

Can I do a voiceover? Okay all in favor? Any opposed Okay. And City Clerk, do we now do our... Okay, thank you.

Now I get to redo it. Okay. Thank you, Mayor. I renew my motion to move to retable Councillor's Bill Number 26 to amend the various sections of Title 1, 6, and 10 of the Westminster Municipal Code concerning police regulations, offense classifications, and penalties to align with the Colorado statutes and Colorado Supreme Court's decision in People v. Camp to August 10th, 2026.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem? Second. Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Okay. Any opposed? All right. And now do I have a motion to rearrange tonight's agenda to host the executive session prior to tonight's meeting? Councilor Haught.

I would like to make a motion to move our executive session to the beginning of our meeting as opposed to the end. Thank you. Is there a second?

Mayor Pro Tem. Second. Thank you. Any further discussion? Okay. Go ahead. Mayor Pro Tem.

I know I missed the quick conversation that you had about this. I was just wondering if we could do the Employee Service Awards first before them.

Is that too? I would be willing to redo the motion to change it to after the Employee Service Awards so that way people who are here for that don't have to wait.

Is that too troublesome for the agenda? We can do that. Yeah.

Okay, perfect. I think that resolves what my question and comment was going to be. So thank you.

Okay, so I would like to Remove the first motion I take that back and I would like to make a new motion to move our executive session after the employee Awards Instead of at the end of our meeting Thank you.

Mayor Pro Tem? Second. Thank you. Mayor, Councilor? Sorry, I was just about to say, yeah. Okay, sounds good. So without further conversation from fellow Councillors, I just want the audience to know that if this goes through, what is happening is there is an executive session scheduled for the end of this meeting, and Council is voting to hold that now. And so I know that this would postpone some agenda items that you may be willing to listen to. What it does do is it moves up tonight's executive session so that that discussion can be held earlier in the evening for the people that are coming their way to hold that. I can't go further than that. I just wanted to host some sort of explanation for you if this goes through. So all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

I'm opposed. Thank you. I think the people that came here is expected to start on time and finish on time. And the others that were slated to be after knew they were going to be after. So I'm a no. Thank you, counselor.

Okay, with that, we will move the executive session up. But first, we will be doing our Employee Service Awards, which we're really excited about because we know we have a lot of friends and family in the audience for that. So our first will be led by Councillor Brachos.

Mayor, you actually need to do the minutes. You have to do the rest of the agenda in order.

Oh, I missed the amendment. I apologize. Do I have a motion for the minutes? Councillor Johnson.

Thank you, Mayor. I move to approve the minutes of the July 13th, 2026 City Council meeting as presented.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Second. Excellent. Roll call, please. You can do it. We can do it. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? I don't see any edits. Excellent. Okay. Sorry about that. Now we will move on to our Employee Service Awards.

This is awesome. Courtney, do you want to come on up? I'll read a quick bio about her, but I would like for, and then any, do you have people here that you'd like as well?

I really dropped the ball on this. My daughter is eight months pregnant with a two-year-old, and I didn't want to make her come down for a drive, and my son lives in Westminster, and I didn't have that, so here I am just by myself. But you're all here to support me, and I'm pretty jazzed about that.

We definitely have the city behind you as well. Thanks, Courtney. So Courtney Van Marder is a Colorado native, proud mother of two, and grandmother of three. She has dedicated the past 20 years to serving the Westminster Fire Department and the Westminster community. Courtney began her fire service career with Westminster Fire Department in 2006 as a firefighter, earned her paramedic certification and promotion in 2008, and was promoted to fire lieutenant in 2014. Throughout her career, she has been committed to advancing firefighter health, wellness, and behavioral health, which we are all very grateful for. Yeah, absolutely. In 2015, Courtney founded the Westminster Peer Support Team and was instrumental in establishing the North Area Peer Support Team, a regional collaboration among neighboring fire departments. She has since helped develop, mentor, and support more than 15 firefighter behavioral health and peer support programs across Colorado, building enduring resources for first responders and their family. A strong advocate for physical fitness, Courtney competed on the Westminster Fire Combat Team and earned third place in the female division at the 2012 World Firefighter Combat Challenge Championships. Nice. Driven by her passion for improving firefighter health and resilience, Courtney earned a bachelor's degree in health and wellness and became a national board-certified functional medicine health coach. She combines her education with evidence-based wellness strategies to support firefighter performance, resilience, and long-term health. In 2025, Courtney expanded her role into community outreach as the EMS field coordinator and community outreach coordinator. In this position, she leads and implements public health initiatives, including Stop the Bleed, CPR education, and the department's Whole Blood program, while strengthening partnerships between the fire department and the community it serves. With two decades of service, Courtney continues to champion firefighter wellness, behavioral health, professional development, and community education, leaving a lasting impact on both the fire service and the citizens of Westminster. Let's give it up for Courtney. And here we have a certificate for Courtney, as well as her pin for her many years of service. Thank you. Thank you so much. Absolutely.

Three, one, two, three. One, two, three. Congratulations.

Thank you, thank you very much, well done.

Absolutely, yeah, thank you.

Next we have Councilor Izadi.

Is Kate Skarbek here today? Kate, you are a legend in this city, but please introduce yourself and who you're with here.

Hi, I'm Kate Skarbek with the City of Westminster in the Parks, Recreation, and Libraries Department, and I'm going to have everybody introduce themselves.

Hi, I'm Haley Stevenson, Homeless Navigator for the City of Westminster for the past four years.

And I'm Alex Reeves, PRL Operations Manager. And Kate, I don't supervise Kate, she's the best.

Thank you. And my brother and his wife are in the audience, but they did not want to come up, so I told them they didn't have to. But I felt like I needed to acknowledge them.

Well, Kate, you've been here 35 years. Of all the time you've been here, what's the most shocking thing? Yes, you didn't know this was an interview, did you?

I did not know this was an interview. Most shocking thing, I'm not sure it was shocking, but just the evolution of our city over time and having grown up here. I've seen it transform from a pretty small town to a true city and a partner across the entire metro region.

That wasn't very shocking, but that's fine. So Kay grew up in the community, beginning her career with the city in 1991 as a library shelver while attending college. She advanced through the library system to become library services manager. After nearly 25 years in libraries and ready for a new challenge, she moved into the role of senior management analyst for special projects in the Parks, Recreation, and Libraries Department. In this position, Kate led efforts to rehouse 73 households displaced by the 2018 Westbury fire. She collaborated with jurisdictions across Jefferson County to establish homeless navigator positions. And Westminster's program has since helped more than 200 people secure housing and provided over 11,000 nights of shelter. During COVID-19, she coordinated daily with food pantries, food rescue organizations, and county partners to ensure consistent food access for residents. She continues to oversee the navigator program and works regionally with partners committed to supporting residents across all economic backgrounds. Outside of work, Kate enjoys reading, watching films, and spending time with her family. What's your favorite film?

Favorite Christmas movie is White Christmas, and I'm not going to go into all the other genres that I could go into.

And here's a pin and your plaque.

Thank you.

Give it up for Kate.

All right, ready? One, two, three. One, two.

And our last service award will be presented by Mayor Pro Tem Nurmela. Do we have one or two?

Last two. All right, Kim McDaniel. Come on down, Kim. Kim has been an employee here for 30 years. Doesn't, yeah, I don't think so, but okay. Do you want to introduce who you have with you?

Yes, this is my husband, Chad McDaniel, and my daughter, Shay McDaniel, and I also have a son, but he wasn't able to join us today because of work, so yes.

Yeah, Kim has been, I had the pleasure of being able to work with Kim while I was here, too. I'm going to, I'll also give you your certificate while you stay. Just to make my life easier. Kim McDaniel began her career with the city in 1996 as an accounting technician in pension. Over the years, she subtly advanced, becoming an accounting specialist, then reclassifying to benefit specialist. Kim's expertise and commitment culminated in her promotion to retirement administrator in human resources in 2008, where she continues to serve as an integral part of the team and is probably why I might be able to retire someday. Okay. Throughout her career, Kim has been dedicated to helping employees navigate retirement planning with confidence, ensuring a smooth and stress-free transition. She takes great pride in maintaining precise, reliable records that uphold compliance and protect the integrity of the city's retirement plans. She also contributes her knowledge statewide through her service with the Colorado Public Plan Coalition and the Fire and Police Pension Association, strengthening public retirement systems across Colorado. Outside of work, Kim enjoys spending time with her family. She has been married to her husband, Chad, for 32 years, and they have two children, Riker, a civil engineer, and Shay, a finance student at Texas Tech University. Kim loves traveling and playing pickleball. All right, let's hear it.

One, two, three. One, two, three.

Congratulations. Thank you. That's so funny. My mom's name is Shay, and my dad's name is Ray.

Oh, that's weird.

All right, Chrissy Melbert. Who's joining you? Is someone gonna come? You know what, I was just gonna say all the staff should come and join Chrissy.

Yeah, come on up. There we go.

Peer pressure.

That's okay.

You deserve a long one. Okay, now that you're up here, you now have to introduce yourself. Or do you want to do it? We'll let them do it. Okay, Chrissy says you guys have to do it.

Hi, I'm Sally Thomas, and I work for the city also, and Chrissy and I have been friends for probably well over 40 years.

I'm Lisa Durant and I'm a pickleball friend and a traveling friend with Chrissy.

I'm Kimberly Chrisman and I've known Chrissy for a very long time working here at the City of Westminster.

My name is Blake Ramsey. I've worked with Chrissy for 25 years. Yikes.

Stephanie Musala. I work in Parks and Rec and I've known Chrissy for a very long time and she's my gambling partner. Chris Van Bladeren, pickleball and traveling buddy.

Lance Johnson, Chrissy's one and only direct report.

Owen Ramsey, Blake's son.

I'm Seth, I've worked with Chrissy for almost 10 years and I get to work with her with pickleball currently.

uh pat latta and i just met her out front but we've done a lot of pickleball and traveling well that was great thanks okay so 45 years of service from chrissy so chrissy was born and raised in colorado on the rooney ranch near morrison where the famous dinosaur tracks are located around 1860 am i reading that right Okay, all right, just making sure. Her ancestors built their ranch and homes from the rocks surrounding their 4,000 acres. This site was even inducted into the Jefferson County Historical Commission Hall of Fame. There are many interesting stories involving the Ute Indian chief, Cholera and Zebulon Pikes family, as the Rooneys are known to be one of the first Jefferson County settlers in the mid-1800s. The family has their ranch, a road, a valley, and an elementary school named after them. That's almost cooler than 45 years here. Chrissy's career started with the city in 1980 at the Countryside Recreation Center teaching preschool classes. She had so much fun that she also became a part-time recreation clerk in 1981 and continued to teach. When City Park opened in 1986, she moved to a full-time position as a recreation clerk, which she held for two years before transferring to City Hall. Chrissy then became a clerk typist for the department. Presently, her title is Administrative Assistant II with the Parks and Golf Division at the Parks Operations Center. Chrissy has played a leading role in maintaining financial records for the department, with a wide range of responsibilities involving the HP system, JD Edwards, and was a pioneer in the implementation of the P-Card program, at times overseeing over 130 cards per month. She served on the employee advisory committee and with a focus group to rewrite an admin memo, which was quite enlightening. I kind of may need to know. She has received several teams in action and spirit awards as well. Would you mind holding this because I'm going to. In addition to her administrative role, she is involved with different sports programs, including supervision of soccer, adult basketball, softball, and pickleball. Chrissy has been an active city volunteer with open space projects and special events throughout her career. Chrissy is married and has been blessed with a daughter, two sons, a granddaughter, three grandsons, and presently two great-grandsons. Wow. Her love of travel has taken her to Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Alaska, Costa Rica, the Panama Canal, Mexico, and in 2025, Athens, Greece, Turkey, Malta, Italy, and Mykonos. to name a few, you've gone far more places than me. Her spare time involves working on jigsaw puzzles, gardening, playing pickleball, I see this, and of course, enjoying all the Denver area sports teams, especially the Denver Broncos. On an end note, Chrissy is extremely grateful and thankful for being blessed with having the opportunity to have served the citizens of Westminster and especially working with her wonderful coworkers, managers, supervisors, and department heads still to this day. What an amazing 45-year journey. Step up on the riser and join us in the middle.

We're going to do a back row and a front row.

Congratulations.

Thank you all so much for showing your support. 45 years is incredible. Thank you. City manager, do we, I'm sorry, city attorney, do we have reason for executive session?

Thank you, Mayor. Yes, the executive session on tonight's agenda is to discuss strategy and progress on proposed improvements to the Butterfly Pavilion and to provide instructions to the city's negotiators pursuant to 24-6-402-4E1 of the Colorado Revised Statutes and Sections 1, 11-3, C-4, and 7 of the Westminster Municipal Code.

Thank you. We will go around and vote to enter exec session. Councillor Azadi.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you so much, and we will be back in hopefully approximately a half an hour.

. . Thank you. . . Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. you Thank you. . . Bye. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. ¶¶ . . . Thank you. . . . Thank you. Thank you. . . . Thank you. Thank you. you Thank you. you Thank you. Thank you.

Miss Abby, are we set?

Mayor, we're ready.

Thank you so much and thank you to our audience sincerely. We are now reconvening at 7.54 and we are moving on to public comment. And for those of you who've been patient enough, thank you sincerely. Public comment is an opportunity for the public to address city council on any issues or items pertaining to city business unless there is a public hearing on the topic. Tonight, there is one public hearing regarding Northridge at Park Center. If you are here to speak on that item, please hold those comments until the hearing is called. During public comment, each speaker will have up to three minutes for their comments. Staff will follow up with questions and outstanding issues. City Clerk, would you please report the number of email and voicemail comments received, the number of individuals signed up to speak, and call the first speaker to the podium.

We received four emails, zero voicemails, and we have five live speakers. The first speaker is Kurt Frenzel from the FOP.

Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of City Council. My name is Kurt Frenzel and I have the honor of serving as president of the Westminster Lodge 25 Fraternal Order of Police. To my left is Chase Swearingen. He is our second vice president of Lodge 25. I want to begin by thanking you for your time this evening and for your consideration of the collective bargaining agreement before you. I am here on behalf of our membership simply to express our appreciation and our support for this agreement. This agreement is a result of many months of hard work, collaboration, and thoughtful discussion between the city and the Fraternal Order of Police. Negotiations are never simple, but throughout this process we experience professionalism, respect, and a genuine commitment to working toward a fair outcome. I'd like to thank the city's negotiation team, city administration, and everyone who dedicated their time and effort to reaching this agreement. We appreciate the willingness to listen, engage in meaningful dialogue, and work throughout difficult issues in a constructive manner. We believe this agreement reflects a balanced approach that recognizes the city's responsibilities while also supporting the men and women who serve this community every day. It represents a positive outcome for our officers, the city and the residents we're all committed to serving. We respectfully ask for your support of this collective bargaining agreement. Thank you for your continued support of our police officers, for your partnership throughout this process, and for your service to our community. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you. Welcome.

Good afternoon. My name is Jaime Pueblo. My family and I run and operate five Mi Pueblo markets across the prime range. And I'd like to tell you a little bit about our markets. We bring the fresh food choices to the neighborhoods that we operate in. Our markets have fresh grocery, fresh produce, fresh meat departments that sit down and eat restaurants. And we currently employ about 200, 250 employees for each location. And now we are looking forward we're excited to open our next location here in the Westminster city Westminster, which will be open in. A really early end of the year. And we're open up here in the Northgate shopping center. And I like to. Thank the city staff for helping us with the Pueblo market with all the transition. They've been very helpful from day one. We really appreciate everything, any help we can get right now. And I wanna thank you for considering us for the economic development incentive and opening our new business is very hard and I appreciated that, but thank you very much.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Jack Roski. Jack Roski. The next speaker is Sherry Bethurum.

Welcome. Thank you. Thank you very much. I am here because I've experienced a problem accessing the senior mobility program via that is sponsored by Westminster. So I'll tell you what happened to me. I've called numerous times and have never received a ride because I think I know why. But I'll tell you what happened to me a couple of weeks ago. When I called, they said, oh, your doctor's appointment is eight days away. You can only call seven days. So I called the next morning at 9 o'clock, and they said, oh, that bus is full. and we don't run a second bus. I think the problem is that equal weight is given for all requests. And I think that medical requests should be given some priority because you can't change a medical appointment as easily as you could change your shopping appointment to tomorrow. And I think... I think that's all I have to say. I know you guys didn't create it, but I think you can fix it.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

The next speaker is Tom Lampo.

Welcome. Hey, thank you very much. Hello to Westminster. Hello to you in front of me. It's good to be here tonight. We've entered into the hottest part of our year. I think we all know that. I'm Tom Lampo. I'm here to lift up Westminster to the Lord in prayer. So please join me in prayer. Heavenly Father, in Jesus' name, be with us here in Westminster. You continually fight for us. We can't see the spiritual war that is around us, but it does manifest itself here where we are. It touches all of our lives. We want to give you thanks and praise for the rains we've had. Please send wetter weather. Isaiah 41 10 states, so do not fear for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Continually be with us. Make your presence known to us. Make us mindful of your words and with confidence let us cry out to you to give us strength and help. Keep your righteous right hand upon us. Father, we have as many as 11 sizable wildfires burning in Colorado at this time. Psalm 46 one states, God is our refuge and strength and ever present help in trouble. Our land is hot and dry. We need your presence because we are in trouble. Westminster Fire Department has sent crews to assist in fighting these fires. We lift up the Westminster Fire Department and all those that are fighting these fires. It's difficult work in extreme conditions. Please be with them and keep them safe. Be the strength behind all the firefighters. Energize their minds and their bodies and bring all those fighting the fires safely home to their loved ones. And we lift up the families of these firefighters to you. They're making sacrifices that we are not experiencing. Bring strength and comfort to them. Let them find refuge in you. These are truly incredible times and you have blessed us with life, but don't just let us blindly and unknowingly move through these times. Bless all that call Westminster home with an awareness that we have not known. Awaken our senses so we can participate in what you have laid out for us. Let us view life from your perspective. Your word in Ephesians 5, 14 states, for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said, awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light. Change our worldview and align it with your view. Show us a future with unlimited possibilities. You are our God, and we are your people. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you, guys. Have a nice night.

Thank you. Thank you, speakers. City Manager Andrews, do we have a report?

Mayor, thank you. I do have a report. Thank you to all our speakers this evening, and those of you who have requested follow-up, our staff will follow up with you, particularly the person who spoke on the Via Mobility service will follow up. Thank you for coming tonight. Next slide, please. By way of update, for those of you who missed it, this past Saturday we held the 2026 Westie Craft Brewfest at City Park, and pleased to report that we sold 1,465 tickets for that event. Attendees enjoyed live music, food, and pours, and that was put on by 40 local breweries participating, including non-alcoholic beer and wine options. And I want to say thanks to feedback from City Council and the community on that. We also provided free unlimited non-alcoholic beverages for designated drivers this year. And we got a lot of positive feedback about the NA part of the event. So thanks for City Council's leadership on that. You can find more special events always at our website, westminsterco.gov slash special events. Next slide, please. This one is a really important survey for us. We're asking our community to weigh in on their childcare needs. So the city is conducting a childcare needs assessment for families with children up to five years old who are not yet in kindergarten. The city wants to better understand current childcare arrangements, affordability, schedules, and preferences. This aligns with our city strategic plan priority one, which is our opportunity to thrive. and responses are confidential and only aggregate data will be reported. That survey is available at bit.ly slash childcare dash needs, and you can get that link off our city website as well. Next slide, please. Also by way of city update, this is a really cool one. Westminster is honored to host the inaugural, so first ever event in the state of Colorado. We hosted right here in the city of Westminster and that's the Gala Gaitsa Festival. And that's one of Mexico's most celebrated cultural traditions and the most important annual celebration of the state of Oaxaca. Its name comes from the Zapotec word for offering, gift, or the act of sharing. And that act of sharing will be really celebrated at the event. The festival features classic Oaxacan music, food, dances, and a kalenda, which is a parade that welcomes festival attendees to join in. So that will be hosted right here at Westminster's own city park, starting at 11 a.m. and running through to 7 p.m. this coming Saturday, August 1st. Next slide, please. Finally, I have three slides on the agenda for this evening. We did have already our presentation of employee service awards this evening. We have on consent agenda 11 items. One of those has been, will be removed and voted on separately. We also have a public hearing this evening. If you've come for that, that will be a little bit later in the agenda. That's first reading of Councillor's Bill 29 regarding the Northridge at Park Centre, Lot 13B1, Comprehensive Plan Amendment and Consideration of the Preliminary Development Plan for Northridge Senior Living. Next slide, please. Also tonight under new business, as addressed at the beginning of this evening's meeting, this has been tabled, Councillor's Bill 26, and that's an ordinance amending the Westminster Municipal Code regarding police regulations and penalties to align with the state statutes. That is now going to happen on August 10th. We also have tonight first reading of Councillor's Bill 30, approving an economic development agreement with Mi Pueblo Market for a grocery store at 7170 Federal Boulevard. And thank you to the speaker who spoke to that tonight. We also have first reading of Councillor's Bill 31, modifying the Westminster Municipal Code concerning the roadway improvement fee for non-residential users. And finally, the naming of McNally Plaza at Sheridan Green Park. Next slide, please. This is the third slide on tonight's agenda. Under old business, we do have a second reading of Bill 22, and that's a comprehensive plan amendment for Mandalay Gardens, the fuel station with convenience store. And we do have second reading of Councillor's Bill 28, and that's regarding traffic regulation through the use of speed and traffic enforcement cameras. Next slide, please. This week, tomorrow, Tuesday, July 28th, there's no Planning Commission meeting, so Planning Commission tomorrow has been cancelled for Wednesday, July 29th. First thing happening is earlier in the day, and this is the first in a six-part series of what we call our Summer Affordability Series. So from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Aerostat Park in downtown Westminster, you can drop in and meet with city staff and share ideas with us about affordability for your life and time and business in Westminster. So we will share that back with our city council as we gather that and this is coinciding with another event at the park and we're going to be doing five more of these to coincide different times of day, different times of week, pairing up with other things that are happening. But you can also just go directly if you want to drop in and share your ideas with us. Next up is Downtown Westminster Summer Concert Series at Central Park Plaza in Downtown Westminster. That will be at 5.30 to 7 p.m. that night. And then again on Wednesday, the Environmental Advisory Board meeting right here at City Hall, also a hybrid meeting, and that starts at 6.30 p.m. On Saturday, August 1st, I just announced the Gala Geitze Festival, and that's at City Park, 11 a.m. through to 7 p.m., Also on Saturday, August 1st, another event in downtown Westminster, that's Cinema on the Square, and that is Jurassic Park. So that's at our Central Park Plaza also, right in the heart of downtown, and that will begin at 5.30 and go until 10.30 p.m. And then finally, also downtown Westminster, our Summer Yoga Series continues at Aerostat Park, and that will run from 9 to 10 a.m. Saturday morning. Next slide, please. at our next meeting of City Council, which is next Monday, August 3rd, beginning here at 6.30 p.m. That's a study session meeting. We have three presentations that night. The first will be recommendations for the 2027 and 2028 utility rates and rate structure. This is the follow-up to the work done by our Water Task Force, and so this is the next step. Next up will be reviewing current noise regulations and providing direction on amending the Westminster Municipal Code regarding unlawful noise within the city. And finally, presentation three will be an overview of the proposed updates to the Westminster Municipal Code to modernize our tax administration of the city. And finally, an executive session Monday night, obtaining direction regarding a possible purchase of land for a future fire station and fire administration building. Next slide, please. As always, please do try to use Access Westminster to let us know about any concerns or problems or things you'd like to see addressed in your neighborhood or anywhere in the city. And that's at westminsterco.gov. Access Westminster or get our app if you don't have it. It's free and very helpful. Finally, you can phone us at 303-658-2400. Visit our website. And on the website, you can also visit our transparency portal, which we're working on adding a new feature to provide much more insight into our contracting at the city, much more detail on our contract awards. That's all I have, Mayor.

Thank you so much. Questions on the city manager's report?

I did have one question. Last week or last council meeting we mentioned kind of taking a pause on like I forget the name of the community but like the tennis courts and fire station we're still getting a lot of public comment about that and I was wondering if we've done any proactive outreach on trying to, you know, like, since it's kind of settled, just to, you know, put people's minds at ease. I think, I don't know if there's like a lingering next door post or something. I'm not, I actually have no clue, but if we could maybe, if we've done any, I'm just curious if the city manager, if the staff has done any kind of research into where this, the sentiments or this information is coming from, so we can kind of address it at the root, just to allay resident concerns.

Councillor Brahus, thank you for raising that. I have followed up personally with each of the community members who has reached out to us to let them know that the West Cliff open space is not being considered for a fire station or tennis facility. And I appreciate the insight. If there's something else that's still lingering, we did see some correspondence coming in for tonight's meeting on that. So we will do a little bit more generalized proactive outreach. The challenge for us is we never did any public outreach because the work was very conceptual. So we hadn't actually put anything out from the city on that. So whatever is out in the community is generating itself. So we'll see if we can get into that stream and get that calmed down. Thank you.

Thank you. Councillor Ireland. I also wanted to make sure that all the volunteers out there remember that they're going to be remembered on Saturday from 11 to 1. We're having a special recognition of volunteers. So that's also at City Park. Thank you.

Councillor Azadi.

Thank you, Mayor, and my comments can double as my council comments as well, but I have a question. City Manager Andrews, if the police chief can come up real quick. I have a concern that has been around for actually several years, but has intensified recently, and it's about a property on West 73rd Avenue. Alleged, I'll say because nothing has been charged or no one has been arrested, let's say. But I do want to bring this up and highlight for the public and ask you a question specifically on what we can do as a council. But there is a property there that the entire historic Westminster, they know about. It's surrounded by three schools. So the STEM school is right there, the library, and two other schools. And the property owner is a frequent flyer visit from our police officers. There have been multiple abatements that have been filed over the years. But after each cleanup abatement, the crime has returned. So what's happening is there are several allegations of meth use, meth distribution, drug use, fire hazards, accumulated debris, sanitation concerns. Violent crime so last weekend. There's a stabbing for example in the backyard Crime that has involved guns and knives and I and like I said drug use and distribution With several abatements and all the things that we can do from a legal process Is there anything we can do we as a council can do to expedite? I don't know what can be done here but this property is not only a sore on the community, but has brought in a lot of unwanted crime and harm. So what can we do, given the history of this property? And I'll let you speak now.

Councilor Zayi, thank you for the question. Short term, I guess what I would say is I can give you a better answer after a little bit more research. I just spoke with Director Otzelberger, who used to be in code enforcement, and he was aware of some of the court proceedings. Not all of those were successful in the past. Also spoke with Director Kimball, and I'm gonna connect with division manager Everett to talk about what code enforcement has done and make sure that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing. to see what we can and can't do. In a quick search from January, we've been out there 35 times to this house. A lot of those have been in regards to welfare checks and adult protective services has been involved. So some of those, it does garner police response, but it does not necessarily garner a criminal response. which not all of those are going to be considered when we talk about abatement issues. We're talking some mental health issues, potentially some mental health issues and some other health concerns, both from people staying at the property as well as potentially the resident that owns the property. So I will look at that and have a better, I will work with, keep city manager Andrews in the loop, but work with Director Kimball and Director Otzberger for the historical piece of that to get a bigger picture to see what we can do. I'm not aware of anything, I'll say quickly, any rules or ordinances that need to be passed to address that. But I will keep that in mind as well as we're looking at that for a bigger holistic picture on how we bring a better resolution to the community for that.

Thank you so much for looking into that. And yes, I think that would be a great first step to see all the options. What came to mind is Knox Court. If you remember the explosion and how council kind of rallied to expedite the abatement and clean up and all of that. This feels like one of those Knox Court situations. It's really bad right now. So thank you for looking into that.

Yes, absolutely.

Thank you. All right, we will now move on to city council comments. Would anyone like to speak? Councillor Ha. Yes, thank you.

So last week on Wednesday, I attended the Human Services Board meeting where they allocated where the grant funding is going to go next year. I also attended the Westy Beer Fest on Saturday, and that was a really, really fun event. And I have some great news to share. Did you know that municipal pride flags positively impact the local economy? So that's something I learned yesterday in a leadership workshop I was at when someone brought it up to me, so I googled it. And I learned that because Westminster flies the pride flag, we are signaling that we are a welcoming community which positively correlates with broader economic prosperity, talent attraction, and tourism. Furthermore, because Westminster now has a pride celebration, we are positively impacting our local economy even more. Cities hosting pride celebrations see massive local spending injections. It's really the best return on investment because there's very little cost associated with being a more inclusive city. This is from Google itself. Economic studies, such as reports by Wells Fargo economists, indicate that regions with higher LGBTQ plus representation and visible support display stronger long-term economic growth. As the only queer person on council and the only non-binary elected in the state, I'm happy to know that the initiatives and resolutions I bring forward are proven to benefit everyone. It turns out that LGBTQ plus representation in Westminster benefits us all, even those who are not a part of the LGBTQ community, and I think that's great news. Thank you.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem Nirmala. Thank you. I did just want to thank staff for the Westy Brewfest and incorporating non-alcoholic options. I did take advantage of those and I just enjoyed seeing all of the people there and the dogs.

I want to see more dogs next year because it was pretty cute.

And I was trying, the one thing I wanted to point out was that we have the Colorado heat pump week and I wanted to get the date right, that Power Ahead Colorado, which is the Denver Regional Council of Governments, they have a huge grant that is helping to ESSENTIALLY TURN US INTO ALL ELECTRICS SLASH NET ZERO, IMPACT TO THE ENVIRONMENT. THE STATE IS SPONSORING THE FIRST COLORADO HEAT PUMP WEEK AND THAT'S AUGUST 1ST THROUGH 8TH. Hoping that we can put something on our website that can help people Connect to that and it does as far as I understand provide some discounts to purchasing a heat pump for your for your house if you are in that position, so I Just wanted to flag that. I think it's around $1,500 that could go towards a heat pump. So I would love to, I want to confirm it. I remember we heard about it at Dr. Cogg last week. And so I forgot to mention if we could get that on the website. Thanks.

Thank you. Councilor Ireland. Thanks for all those that came out tonight. I know that some left early and I'm sorry about that. So I attended the information session on the transparency portal from our staff and the did a great job of showing me how to use that. And I suggest all of you go out there and you can see the numbers and what we spend daily. And it's a great tool. So I suggest you all go see that. I went to the AgCOG dinner. I'm on the board there. Councilor, I mean, Pro Tem Narmilla was not there so I prepared to speak and everyone goes around from every Adams County city and speaks and I have to tell you how blessed I feel because economically we are doing better than most of the cities in Adams County. They were a little jealous of us, I think. I talked about events that we've held. The Fourth of July was like the biggest we've had since some cities canceled that, so we had 17,000 people, I believe. CML was huge. They were really impressed with the Dry Creek area, and I suggest they all come and see that. a great pollinator area, and everyone's impressed with that. Also, I commented on McKay Lake, which is used a lot. We have 70 parking places there now. We used to have 16, and it's permeable, so all the water that runs off there goes back into the lake, so we are cognizant of our environments when we build these things. So that is great. And I know that Councilor Johnson wanted to speak also so he can tell us what he told them about our city, but we have a great city and I appreciate all those, especially in our PLR for all these events that they do, because it's a lot of work. And I gave them a shout out at the meeting because they do amazing work. It's a lot of work. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Councilor Brahas.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. And thank you for all the speakers who waited for us tonight and had a chance to speak. We appreciate it. Thanks for all those who are going to be at the public hearing later and who have been waiting for us as well. It was another busy, I don't think there's ever not a busy week in Westminster, but a few highlights that I think this council should be aware of and the residents. So yeah, so the Presentation on the transparency portal I had experts who were built the transparency portal who were there with you know Like in the room from staff and I still was confused on the transparency portal. It's really great There's a ton of information if you are looking at it and confused, please reach out to the city There are so many experts and knowledgeable people here who can I mean honestly fetch the data if you want But would be more than happy to walk you through how to get that data yourself. It's it's kind of a both-and option So I highly recommend we had the final contractor licensing open, I don't know what the right name for it is, but meeting where people kind of speak and give feedback. I'm excited for when staff can bring that to us. I'm excited for our code enforcement department who has been kind of spearheading that. And it seems like every single meeting has been positive, lots of good support for kind of updating the contractor licensing, excuse me, process. So when that does come to us, I think they'll be able to share how good, like, you know, all the contractors were on board, all the public was on board, how good of a process it's been. So thank you for going through all of that. I know it's been, you know, very time-consuming, but worth it for sure to get that community feedback. So thank you to staff who was on that. I was at NADA, the Northern Area Transportation Alliance, and that's where I had asked for kind of support from this council to kind of bring up the beeline and other route closures. They were in favor, you know, they voted yes in favor of a letter, so they are advocating RTD As well to kind of take into I forget the official language of the of the motion that we did but essentially they're there with us in trying to ensure that These critical service lines including the beeline are not cancelled. So I appreciate it appreciative of all of the bodies the elected officials who were there who are part of that that body who are supporting us in that and a few just notes first just as we always kind of shout out to the wildland firefighters who are now back or at least I believe they're back in Westminster they have finished their deployment and so now they're they're back here I'm very grateful in light of the fact that we now have had four firefighters who have died in the line of duty fighting the fires the wildland fires I'm grateful you know for the you know never-ending sacrifice and putting themselves out there that our firefighters do for the greater Colorado community and when the call comes for the the nation as well so thank you to you know it was great that we got to honor one of the firefighters today and and i just want to continue echoing um a large thanks to the entire department for that and the chief is back there as well so thank you chief for for keeping us up to date on all of that glad that they're back safe and sound um and thank you for um speaking i think the speaker left but who spoke about the view mobility i think that you know attending to maybe that specific request I think is important, but it's very good feedback as our population continues to age in place and as transit continues to get defunded. Yeah, sorry, I don't mean to wax poetic here. We just need to, I think as a council, really attend to the decreasing ability for mobility that the aging population has and how we can kind of ingrain that transit into the way of life here in Westminster. Thank you.

Thank you so much. I'll add a couple of items here. You made me think of items. Mayor Pertem, thank you for reminding me about heat pump week. I just had an oh shoot moment where someone from our environmental regional summit reached out to me over a month ago asking if I'd speak on a panel. I think it was in Lakewood for heat pump week, and I never got back to them. And so we're going to see if that panel still exists. But there is a panel happening, and I will find out where and hopefully announce that soon. And for those, I was out of town this past weekend and I know that folks still came out and I really appreciate you for doing so for my monthly coffee and so there will be another one. I'm just throwing it back on the calendar this coming Saturday. If you'd still like to come out and chat and find me, find me at 9 30 a.m. at Nava Coffee House on 104th. I'd love to chat with you and I'm sorry for being out of town this past weekend. And then to Councilor Braha's point just now, yes, on the VIA topic, I know that we're going to follow up, of course, but that is something that I was extremely excited to back and push for our city to do when it came around just a couple years ago. And I'm really grateful for Mayor Pro Tem's work on helping make that happen. And this is an area that I'm really hoping to eventually, probably not this year, but maybe next year, see if our council can work on expanding the access for throughout our region. Right now, it only serves our seniors, folks 65 and older, and those with disability, and I am really excited to have it. So if there is feedback, thank you for bringing it. Tell us how it's going with VIA, and then we can incorporate that into our further discussions, especially regionally with our neighboring cities. And then I did, this belongs just a moment ago in the report, but for the city manager's report, I just want to announce that our communications department has been really busy this entire year. They've been very busy, so thank you. I've been keeping them a little bit busy, but they have just opened up a portal called Our Westminster. And so that's ourwestminsterco.gov. And maybe we can add that to that last slide where you have all these other pieces of information. We have our transparency portal there. as well as how to get a hold of us but ourwestminsterco.gov you can find the projects going on throughout the city and have a lot of the questions that you often email our way keep them coming but you'll have your questions answered through that website it has maps of the construction happening throughout the city that was a big lift for our gis for our construction for our engineers and we've got context and background around all our major projects like the drinking water plant With that, I think we can move. Oh, I have Councilor Azadi, please.

Sorry, I forgot one thing. If you live on Stratford Lakes HOA, my next stop on the HOA tour is on August 1st. That's when Mayor Pro Tem will be joining me at 6 p.m., so in case anyone's listening, I shall be there.

Thank you so much. All right, we will move on to the next item. Are there any potential agenda items Council would like to propose for discussion at a future meeting? Councillor Johnson.

Thank you, Mayor. Yes, I would like to propose a potential study session in a non-urgent way on our city practices for municipal court referrals for juveniles, especially focused on juveniles in schools. There's been a lot of data that's been provided both to us internally, but also to external stakeholders who work in the school district world around the school to prison pipeline. And obviously our court plays a pretty heavy role in what happens with our juveniles and our SROs. And we received some data that I think warrants further discussion. So I would love to have a study session on those practices.

Thank you. Let's go ahead and do a quick roll call vote on whether or not we'd like to have a study session on this topic. Are you comfortable, city clerk? Thank you.

Yeah. Councillor Barajas? Yes. Mayor Carmelio? Yes. Councillor Azadi? Yes. Councillor Haught? Yes. Councillor Ireland? Yes. Councilor Johnson? Yes. And Mayor Pro Tem Ramilla? Yes. The motion passed unanimously.

Thank you so much. All right, we will add that to a future study session. Councilor Rosati?

I would like to request a study session to discuss a citywide ban on functionality related to alpr cameras i think we have a pilot that's being approved tonight for non-alpr but the functionality is what matters and i would like to discuss us banning cloud plate databases hot lists cross cross jurisdictional sharing secondary law enforcement use and the retention of non-violations, because I think the majority of Westminster are very hesitant and don't want their privacy violated. So I'd like to request a poll for that.

Thank you so much, Councillor. City Clerk, could we do the same?

Mayor Carmelia? Yes. Councillor Azadi?

Yes.

Councillor Haught? Yes. Councillor Ireland? Yes. Councillor Johnson? Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Nurmela? Yes, and if staff can help us understand what the impacts might be on that in terms of any functionality of any of our existing systems, that would be helpful.

And Councillor, sorry, and Councillor Barajas. Yes. The motion passes unanimously.

Thank you so much. Okay, we're gonna move on to our consent agenda. Item 9E has been removed from the consent agenda. Do I have a motion for the remaining items? Councillor Johnson.

Thank you, Mayor. I move to approve consent agenda items 9A through 9D and 9F through 9K.

Thank you. Councillor Haught. I second. Thank you. Any further discussion?

Okay. Roll call, please. Councillor Azadi.

Yes.

Councillor Haught. Yes. Councillor Ireland. Yes. Councillor Johnson. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Nurmela. Yes. Councillor Barajas. Yes. Mayor Carmelia. Yes. And Councillor Azadi.

I said yes.

Oh, okay. My apologies. The motion passes on a 7-0 vote.

Thank you. Do I have a motion for item 9E? Councillor Haag.

Yes, I move to adopt the resolution number 20 affirming that data centers are not a permitted use in the city of Westminster and support the opinion of staff. I'm sorry, I'd like to start over. I would like to move to adopt resolution number 20, affirming that data centers are not permitted use of the City of Westminster with an amendment that says that data centers are explicitly banned.

Thank you, Councilor. Do I have a second for that? Councilor Brahus?

Second.

Thank you. Any further discussion?

Councilor Haag? Yes, the amendment is important because while data centers are not allowed in our current comp plan amendments, our current comp plan, there are comp plan amendments and the comp plan can change. and that can overturn the way this resolution is currently written. So that is why I offered the amendment stating that data centers be explicitly banned in Westminster because this is not enough. Saying that our comp plan doesn't allow it when we see amendments to our comp plan all the time and knowing that that's something that can change in the future, that means any future city council could change that. And so I think it's very important that we pass this with the amendment so that way we know that this ban cannot be overturned. And so I just wanted to explain that.

Thank you. Councillor Brawhouse?

Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you, Councilor Haught. I agree. I think my mind went in a different direction when I was looking at this. A couple of outstanding concerns that this doesn't address are a few things. One of my particular concerns are if we have effectively banned it, and then even if this doesn't pass. it's already not a permitted use. But in some of the surrounding areas, like if right across the street from Westminster boundaries, a data center is put into place and we see the similar environmental impacts. Also, I'm concerned about any land or any place that is serviced by Westminster utilities but wouldn't be governed by Westminster building code or comp plan kind of stuff. I'm wondering if we can look into what does it look like for Westminster Water to go into some of these unincorporated areas but still be going towards a data center. So I would really appreciate maybe just continued discussion around this so that this council can continue to have some of these conversations, that staff can kind of continue to inform us. And if that's in a study session, I don't know if this is, I'm not officially requesting a poll for a study session, but that's just kind of the feedback I'd like to give as we have this conversation. And then just in that discussion, I think it'd be helpful to look at what sort of, you know, lobbying or kind of political conversations we can have with our neighbors, our representatives, just to kind of continue to advocate for this. So it's not just a standalone city thing, but we can kind of advocate for not only ourselves and our immediate surrounding area, but the greater area that we are neighbors for. So those were all kind of my thoughts, but, you know, I'm very glad to vote yes on this.

Mayor Pro Tem Nirmala. Similarly, I don't know if this has been seconded yet, but... It has. Okay, it is. All right. Similarly, I think... You know, I could vote for what we have here. I would want to know more information and also clarify, really, even if we did do a ban, that it could still be overturned by future councils. Is that correct? There's no land use-wise permanent move we can make?

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. And I'll look to Mr. McConnell to correct the mistakes I'm about to make. But the nature of zoning, essentially, is that it's permissive. And data centers are not a permissive use under the Westminster Municipal Code. So I think that the resolution that's before you tonight is to uphold Mr. McConnell's determination that the current code does not allow data centers. So that resolution is before you tonight. If council would like to also amend the code to ban data centers, it feels like that's a separate action that council could take. It wouldn't be by resolution. That would be an ordinance. And I think that Mr. McConnell's agenda memo identifies that the UDC that is in development will address data centers in a better way than the current code does. So I think there's a few options available to counsel. You can look at the UDC as it comes forward and if that meets your needs as far as the regulation of data centers in a more explicit way. You can do it through the UDC. If you want to consider a standalone ban that is part of the municipal code, I think that's also an option. So I look to Mr. McConnell to correct me, please.

I believe Mr. Frank will summarize that very well. But I'm here to answer any questions if you have any additional ones for me.

I do agree with Councilor Barajas that it might be helpful to see what's being proposed with the UDC update, the development code update, and potentially I'd be interested in are there potential setback requirements or other ways that we can fortify the use itself, whether it's in a county enclave like in Adams County or something like that. I don't know if Adams County allows them or not, but just kind of similar to where how other cities treat like oil and gas facilities. So if we could take a look at that and I'd also be interested in just understanding, I don't know very well, but I don't know if some industrial uses or some office uses also have small data centers in their buildings. And so kind of understanding if we were to ban the use itself, is there a size that would make sense? Because if some facilities do utilize data center What do they define their server's farm as being? So that would be just additional info for us.

So we will do some research on and make a recommendation to the council on what to do about enclaves and areas that are adjacent to us that we don't have control over. So we'll need to do a little more digging on that. I can reiterate that data centers are not allowed in Westminster. Zoning regulations, as Mr. Frankel alluded to, are permissive by nature. They're not prohibited by nature. So if a data center is not listed as a permitted use and they're not in the zoning ordinance and they're not in any of our PUDs, then they're simply not allowed. I would have no authority to process an application for one unless and until this council or a future council decided to allow them and regulate them. but that would have to be a proactive action, again, on this council or future council. It would require a comp plan amendment also, as Councilor Haught mentioned. And as we've noted, that could happen.

Thank you. For me, technical. Just one more thing. I know that data centers. Counselor, I can let you speak, sorry. I just wanna, I'll let you speak real quick, but I just wanna go back from a technicality standpoint. I'm gonna let you speak and then I'm gonna clarify where we are in the process of the motion. Go ahead.

I know that many data centers are coming down the pipe. They're just individual data centers. So this might be something that businesses use. And that's why I would like more education before I ban them altogether.

So, and I appreciate that. In the agenda memo, I defined what I called modern data centers, for lack of a better term. But modern data centers do not include what would be widely known as enterprise data centers. And those are data centers that are incorporated into an existing business or employer's campus. So for example, if one of our major employers like Trimble needed data services that serve their campus, their business on site, that's purely an accessory used to them. It does not exist without Trimble being there. And if Trimble went away, The data center goes away because it was dedicated solely to them the other data centers managed data centers cloud edge and hyperscale Those are all standalone and they serve through the cloud multiple companies all over the world and that was the distinguishing factor that I added to this Just to be clear, a data center prohibition or lack of allowed use would not preclude a business from having their own data processing services within their organization.

If we amend it to ban all data centers, does that change things for them?

I don't think so. Data centers, again, in this vernacular that I've put together for you, they're standalone. They're not accessory to or serve an individual corporation on their campus. with their employees and within their facilities, they would be standalone and would serve the world. So I wouldn't characterize those as a data center by definition.

Thank you so much. Okay, before I hand it over to Councillor Haught, I'm just going to say it sounds like we would like more firm commitment on this, which would require an ordinance and not a resolution, which is a separate action. And so I can take that action after we finish this item on the resolution. So if you would like to amend or if you have further comment, Councillor Haught.

Yes, I just want to also bring up something that hasn't been brought up. One of the reasons why it's very important to ban the standalone data centers is because they use an exorbitant amount of water, a water that we simply do not have in the city, and we need to be prioritizing our water for residents. and not for these type of projects. And so that is why it is so, I feel so strongly about making sure we have a ban on them because of the impacts on our water. Thank you. And then I am willing to... sorry the words are escaping me the the motion i'm i am um i i take back the motion that i put forward thank you so much counselor would okay counselor johnson thank you i think we need to remake the motion then just a clean motion um

which is I move to adopt resolution number 20, affirming that data centers are not a permitted use in the city of Westminster and support the opinion of staff regarding the prohibition of data centers within the city.

Thank you. Councilor Brahas.

Second.

Thank you. Roll call, please. Councilor Haught.

Yes. Councillor Ireland. Yes. Councillor Johnson.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Nurmela. Yes. Councillor Barajas. Yes. Mayor Carmelia. Yes. And Councillor Azadi. Yes. The motion passes on a 7-0 vote.

Thank you so much. And before we move forward, I heard a request for a study session item. So while this is not explicitly in the agenda, I want to make sure we address that before we move ahead too far. So if we could do a quick poll to address this at study session.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you so much. all right thank you so much we that moves us now let me just catch up okay there are no appointments or resignations this evening and then that brings us to our public hearings before we move on to our public hearing let's take a quick five minute here so we can all catch up the time is 8 48 please be back before 8 55.

you . . . . Thank you. Thank you.

The time is now 8.55 and we bring us back to our first public hearing. We have one public hearing this evening regarding Northridge at Park Center and the time is, as I just stated, 8.55 and I will now open the public hearing. Does staff have a presentation?

Yes.

Welcome.

Yes. All right, good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and City Council. My name is Trevor Harlow with the city's planning division here tonight to give the presentation for Northridge, a park center senior living project. All right. As part of bringing this project before you, a staff agenda memo has been created and tonight's public hearing has been properly noticed. The agenda memo, its associated attachments, tonight's PowerPoint presentation and the public notices has sent with the mailed notices and the posted signed notices are hereby entered into the public record. The notices of the public hearing were mailed to over 400 property owners, tenants, and HOAs within 1,000 feet of the parcel under consideration tonight. Two public notification signs were posted on the subject property in both English and Spanish. The city also posted the hearing date and time on its website. The subject property being discussed tonight is approximately 6.84 acres and is located at 1259 Park Center, specifically on the southwest corner of West 122nd Avenue and Park Center Drive, as identified in the vicinity map shown here before you. On the left of this slide you will see the current comprehensive plan land use designation which is employment flex. The adjacent image on the right shows the proposed comprehensive land use designation amendment to suburban multifamily. I also wanted to point out to you all that on the map you can see an existing suburban multifamily designation development located just just there to the southwest of the property. So just demonstrating that there is existing suburban multifamily within that area. All right. Section 11.521 of the Westminster Municipal Code contains 10 criteria that are to be considered when reviewing land use plan amendments. These cover compliance with city regulations and policies, analysis of planning and impacts on surrounding communities, site constraints, and impacts on existing infrastructure. The proposed amendment is expected to have a generally minor impact on surrounding uses and is considered harmonious with the area. Staff finds that there is need for senior housing and a corresponding lack of need for additional office space throughout the greater region. And this site offers an opportunity to convert a property from a declining need into a growing need. I do also want to clarify with that that while this analysis and the associated agenda memo does demonstrate a regional need for housing, employment flex areas do remain a critical need to Westminster's long-term economic development goals. As such, this analysis does not support the widespread conversion of employment flex designated land to residential uses, but does support this conversion in isolation just due to this specific site, its constraints, its location, its proximity to certain things and the circumstance at hand. That being said, staff does find that all 10 standards of approval for land use plan amendments have been met. Additionally, I'll also note and shown here on the screen, the proposal does support an important goal of the comprehensive plan, that being HN4, by ensuring housing options for seniors are supported and developed throughout the city. All right, moving to the PDP side of it. Section 11514 of the Westminster Municipal Code contains 10 criteria that are to be considered when reviewing preliminary development plan or PDP amendments. These include compliance with the comprehensive plan, which we went over, sound planning, compatibility with the surrounding context, circulation and access, and performance standards related to site design and architecture. Staff reviewed this preliminary development plan amendment from the applicant to allow for the development of 122 unit senior living community. And this of course also included the previously covered comprehensive plan amendment that allows for this use to then be proposed. Staff finds that the proposed amendment generally meets the criteria considerations for amendments to PDPs, has noted in the staff agenda memo. I also wanted to share a summary from the neighborhood meeting for this project. So a neighborhood meeting was held for this project at Bradburn Village Clubhouse on February 11th, 2026. We did have two residents attend this meeting and they were generally in support of the project. And at the time they did not voice any concerns or feedback that would request changes to the proposal or see anything different than what was being proposed. No other feedback was received before, during, or after the neighborhood meeting until notice was provided for the original planning commission meeting and we did receive one email at that point. All right, so given that, staff recommends that the city council approve the comprehensive plan amendment and the preliminary development plan amendment as is. Also note on June 9th, 2026, Planning Commission recommended approval of the Comprehensive Plan Amendment and the Preliminary Development Plan Amendment by a vote of seven to zero. Staff also finds that a recommendation of approval of the application would support the city's strategic plan priority of opportunity to thrive through creating a new housing development that specifically caters to a demographic in need of stable housing while fostering a connected and prosperous development. Thank you for your attention. I'm happy to answer any questions. Additionally, the applicant is with us here tonight and has a presentation to share with you as well. So I'll pass it on to them unless there's any questions for me first.

Any questions for staff?

Mayor Pro Tem. Yeah, just thank you for the presentation. I just had a question regarding, I know there were no concerns that came out of the traffic analysis, but when we did have the concept plan discussion a while ago, there was concern about just the traffic and I don't know if it was that the resident who emailed in too was worried about the traffic that would be along. 124th or the road that's in front of the school.

I'm just...

I know it's, my kids used to go to the school, used to navigate that a couple times a day. I know we've had accidents in the past that have been pretty disturbing. So what are we doing as a school? Have we reached out to the school? Are we feeling confident about our traffic management capabilities and how this will just add to the activity?

Yeah, thank you for that question what I will say is traffic obviously gets an opportunity traffic engineering gets an opportunity to review this application, both at the PDP level and the comprehensive plan level. And did not at that time raise any concerns for this change going from employment flex to the suburban multifamily. And then of course that will be reviewed at the ODP level in much greater detail. That's when they'll be needing to do the traffic study and look at the impact a little closer. But at this time they did not raise an initial concern to this comprehensive plan change and associated PDP.

Can I just ask that staff go take a look at the conditions when school starts back up again? Because I know that the road can handle X amount, but it's not really taking into account what happens at the school pick up and drop off. I know it's 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes in the afternoon, and I do this on a daily basis. I understand where we are, but I just... want to make sure that we're eyes wide open and really thinking about the management here. And it would be helpful if staff actually went out and hung out and observed during those times.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you.

Oh, Councillor Ireland. Oh, to Councillor, I mean, Mayor Pro Tem's point, she's talking about traffic. I talk a lot about parking, and I know in that area, the parking is crazy, too. People parking on the streets, whatever. So I want to be assured that there's proper parking in this area, because... there's no room for them to go on the streets anymore in that area and and the school and all that managing all that with park people parking on the side of the road so i hope that we're thinking about the parking situation and that elderly do have visitors and they don't want to be isolated and they i hope we are thinking about we're not going to just have you know less than even one parking place per unit. So that's my concern with it because we already have a shortage of parking in Bradburn.

Yes, absolutely. Thank you for the comment, counselor.

Okay, seeing no more questions, I think we're ready for our client presentation. Thank you.

Great.

Welcome.

Well, thank you and good evening Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, distinguished members of the City Council. My name is Doug Spieler, I'm a principal with BEC and as a resident of Westminster, formerly but for 14 plus years, really excited to be in front of you this evening representing two landowners that are longtime Westminster residents that both live and work here in the city. I'd also like to introduce my partner and colleague, Bill Maher, who is a principal with Norris. Suffice it to say, we also wanna thank you to staff, in particular, Trevor, Jacob, and in particular, Mr. McConnell. We're excited to be here. We're 22 months into the process and excited to present this senior housing project. We think it's really critical to the continued success of the area and the city. We recognize again that we're at a preliminary stage and again, as Trevor mentioned, look forward to the upcoming ODP process and certainly appreciate some of the council's comments just now. Bill.

Thank you, Doug. And good evening, members of the council and mayor. It's a pleasure to be here this evening. And what we have before you is a timeline. As Doug pointed out, we started this process back in October of 2024. And we've been working very diligently with staff. And as you see the timeline of events, and now we are in front of you at the end of our request for the preliminary development plan and the comprehensive plan amendment. And as we will be moving forward, we take your comments to heart for when we start the ODP process. And this slide here just shows you the site location. And the reason we included it is because with this type of land use, senior housing, active senior housing, We feel the site has a great access to nearby open space, commercial that is relatively walkable to the south, and also the charter school to the south. And a few things that we're excited about this project. It's approximately seven acres in size. And as Mr. Harlow noted, the need for senior housing within Westminster, which is not uncommon within our metro area and our country, in fact, and the ability to bring this type of housing into the community and into this area with this rounding context, as I noted on the previous slide, the open space, the trails, this is the type of site that we find very appealing. And here's a little close up of it. As you see the site outlined in yellow, we have our multifamily residential to the southwest. And then beyond the open space on the northwest and west, we have single family and then the office commercial to the west. So we feel that this is a good transition from commercial on the east to having this senior housing in the middle, then transitioning to higher density to the southwest. So it is a very good transition of uses within this area. And then this slide here just shows that the zoning of the site, the PD amendment, and what we're proposing within here, we've spent two years working hand in hand with staff and collaborating on standards for the architecture, for the landscape, for the setbacks. And you will see more on the ODP of how we're even being more detailed with that and taking your comments to heart about parking and about traffic. as we move forward with the ODP process. But right now we're at that high level framework plan and we've incorporated standards that we really feel will be very successful to provide buffering, preserve open spaces, provide access to the regional trail system that will benefit the surrounding area because we're being very mindful and sensitive about that. And with that, I will turn it over to Doug to close out. Thank you for your time tonight.

Thanks, Bill. And again, in our efforts to really stay succinct tonight, we did want to share a fairly early conceptual plan. Really the big idea here when you look at it is the buildings are sited to open to the west, and really embrace the open space. We believe that we've really thoughtfully and carefully placed these three-story buildings, maintaining, again, view corridors, and as Bill mentioned, we think it's just a solid transitional density from the adjacent context, again, to the open space. We've got an array of precedent images, which we think will help also provide a bit of a vision for the project, even though we're very early on in the design phase, particularly the upper left, reminiscent of the same covered entry and drop off that we showed in the illustrative plan. Several images there in the middle that talk about varied outdoor spaces, even the middle right, which shows some shade structure. And then the bottom images wanna come back to the style that we did with council back in January of 25, where we heard the inclusion of community gardens. We're excited to show that in our illustrative plan as well. And finally, we wanna reinforce not only staff and planning commission support, but to emphasize that we are asking for no exceptions. We believe that the packet of materials meets all of the Westminster requirements to deliver a successful project aligned with the city goals, but also again, providing much needed senior housing. Thank you again to council and to staff. Thanks so much. We're happy to answer any questions.

Thank you so much. Are there any questions for the applicant? Wow. Okay. It looks like you've answered everyone's questions. All right. Do we have anyone signed up for public testimony?

We have no one signed up for public testimony. Okay.

just making sure we're all set all right one more chance counselor hot um yeah i don't have a question but i do have a comment i would like to make um so i just want to remind folks that these hearings are quasi-judicial this is not a vote where we make an opinion of i like this or i don't like this a lot of the votes that we take, we can bring our opinion into it. This is quasi-judicial. All we want to know is does this meet our approval criteria? And it does. And so I'm going to vote for it because it does. Because what happens is when we have a quasi-judicial hearing, and the applicant meets the approval criteria and we deny them, that puts our city in a very dangerous situation because they can take us to court and prove that they do meet the approval criteria. So for the fact that it meets all 10 criteria and it meets our approval criteria, I feel like I must vote yes in this situation because it is a quasi-judicial decision. Thank you.

Thank you so much. I saw some buttons. Everyone's good? All right. Okay. Well, with that, does staff or anyone have anything else to add? I doubt it. We are good. Well, with that, the time is 9.13 and I will now close the public meeting. May I have a motion, please? Councilor Johnson.

Thank you, Mayor. I move to pass Councilor's Bill Number 29 on first reading to approve the Comprehensive Plan Amendment for Northridge and Park Center, Lot 13B1 to change the land use designation from Employment Flex to Suburban Multifamily. This recommendation is based on the findings that the Comprehensive Plan Amendment complies with the criteria in Section 11.521 of the Westminster Municipal Code.

Thank you so much. Councilor Brawhouse.

Second.

Thank you. Any further discussion? Mayor Pro Tem.

I just wanted to thank staff for thinking about how this can best integrate into this area. I appreciate your hearing my concerns about the traffic and I do think that overall this is an appropriate change in land use and because we have that great transition between the office and the open space and we already have some in the area, so I am in support of this comp plan change. Thank you. Councilor Brawhaus.

Thank you. Echoing similar sentiments, I just want to voice my rationale for being in support of this. You know, the impact is minimal. It matches the surrounding you know designation for all of for for all the stuff on the east side of it and You know, I just I think this is a kind of a perfect match for what we're look what what a good You know comp plan amendment looks like Outside of my criteria, you know, I'm just grateful for staff to kind of bring this together I'm grateful for the applicant for putting together something that works so well and and also that addresses the very critical need of senior living for sure, but for the

Reasons mentioned before I will be yes Thank You councillor Ireland I Appreciate this too. Usually I don't like compound plant plan amendments because comp plans were made to with a vision in mind, but this seems to be the best fit for this piece of land. The neighbors aren't complaining, so I haven't heard lots of emails from the neighbors, so that makes me feel good that it's the right choice, so thank you very much.

Thank you. Seeing no further discussion, I'll offer my comments as well. Thank you for bringing forth something that really does meet our need right now. As we know, senior housing continues to be a great need. It will probably continue for the next 10 years, so we have time to kill here in bringing these projects forward. And again, it is harmonious. multifamily in the area and so i am excited to give this a go thank you staff for all your work and thank you for sticking with the process i know that our city is diligent and so it's been a while thank you for being here with that roll call please counselor ireland

Yes. Councillor Johnson.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Temeramella. Yes. Councillor Barajas. Yes. Mayor Carmelia. Yes. Councillor Azadi. Yes. And Councillor Haught. Yes.

The motion passes on a 7-0 vote. Thank you so much. Do I have a motion for the next item? Councillor Johnson.

Thank you, Mayor. I move to approve the preliminary development plan amendment for Northridge at Park Center, lot 13B1. This recommendation is based on the finding that the preliminary plan, the development plan amendment complies with the criteria in section 11.5.14 of the Westminster Municipal Code.

Do I have a second? Councilor Brawhouse?

Second.

Any further discussion? Mayor Pro Tem.

the PDP I did just want to appreciate the fact that the access points that there are a couple of them and that there is one on the north side of the project too and I think that's helpful with the traffic circulation so and thank you to the team for taking into account the community gardens and so the design of this is responsive and I think it'll be you know, very interactive with the open space, know that it's a sledding hill, so one more thing. All right, thank you. Thank you, any further comments?

All right, roll call please. Councilor Johnson? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Nurmela? Yes. Councilor Barajas?

Yes.

Mayor Carmelia? Yes. Councilor Azzotti? Yes. Councilor Haught? Yes. And Councilor Ireland? Yes. The motion passes on a 7-0 vote.

Thank you so much. Thank you. We'll now move on to the first reading of Councilor Bill number 26. Do I have a motion? Councilor Barajas?

Did we table to 26?

You are correct. We've already moved that.

You're on to the next page.

I'm just making sure. Yeah, you're good. All right, we will now move on to the first reading of Councilor Bill number 30. Councilor Brajas.

Thank you. I move to pass Councilor's Bill Number 30 on first reading to authorize the city manager to execute an economic development agreement with Mi Pueblo Latin Market Incorporated, DBA, Mi Pueblo Market, for the adaptive reuse of the building located at 7170 Federal Boulevard, commonly known as Northgate Shopping Center, for the opening of a 45,000 square foot grocery store.

Excellent. And Councilor Johnson?

Second.

Thank you so much. Is there any further discussion? Mayor Pro Tem.

Sorry to add more, but I just wanted to thank staff, the few people who are still here. And I wish they were still, the team was still here. We just really appreciate that staff has been able to refill this, you know, vacant grocery store. And this is a much needed walkable grocery store for this area. So thanks again. We're very excited. Thank you so much. And Councilor Rosati?

I'd like to echo that, staff. And for the residents who are listening, this is actually one of the most important things we've voted on in quite a while. And I would say it's the most important thing this year, honestly. This grocery store is so needed. We have food deserts all over the city. The location, it is walkable, it is culturally relevant and appropriate, it's nutritionally abundant, right? It's all the things that we want from a food standpoint. People need this. They're going miles away. are traveling very very far distances and this is the kind of stuff that a municipality like westminster should be focused on and we are focused on and staff has looked through for many years you know as since i've been on at least we've been since 2021 trader joe's was the first some other smaller ones right but this is the giant 35 000 square feet um it's going to be great so 45 000 square feet so thank you

Thank you. Councilor Brajas?

Thank you, Madam Mayor, and I thank you, Councilor Zadeh, for really highlighting the importance not only of this grocer, but also the location of it. You know, this is like a food justice issue, and I think that the city's stepping up to do, and Just for for the record staff has worked tirelessly for this and has listened to You know the residents particularly of this area in South Westminster, but you know the greater community who's been advocating for Addressing these food deserts that we have and I am honored to be able to to vote. Yes on this and I really appreciate every single person who's been a part of bringing this to us, particularly the owners of Mi Pueblo. So thank you to everyone who was a part of this. And I encourage residents who kind of see this kind of action and movement to continue advocating in your spaces. We can't see every corner of the city, but we certainly can listen with all of our ears. And just, yeah, I'm really grateful for this council to support this and very excited.

Thank you. Any further comment? Okay, well then I'll add my own. I am also similarly excited to vote for this. There are many things that motivated me initially to run for council, but one of those items was hearing, I remember, I think it was early 2023, you know, that we had such a big food desert in South Westminster and there was a suggestion at the time to relabel the term food desert to something different because that would get rid of the problem. And I just, you know, I am so grateful to the staff that we are facing this head on because I know it's a lot of work and I know we have to work with the market that we have. I remember hearing that response early when I got on and we have done exactly that and we're meeting the needs of the population there. 80% Spanish-speaking in the area, as well as building something that is really more of an engagement, a community engagement model, which is really unique. I feel like we're doing something pretty unique here, so it's exciting. Thank you. Roll call, please.

Mayor Pro Tem Nurmela. Yes. Councilor Barajas. Yes. Mayor Carmelia. Yes. Councilor Azadi. Yes. Councilor Haught. Yes. Councilor Ireland. Yes. And Councilor Johnson. Yes. The motion passes on a 7-0 vote.

Thank you. That moves us to first reading of Councilor Bill's number 31. Councilor Johnson.

Thank you, Mayor. I move to pass Counselor's Bill number 31 on first reading to amend Title IX of Chapter 8 of the Westminster Municipal Code relating to the modification of the fee structure for non-residential users for the roadway improvement fee.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. I was hoping to make the motion, but a second will do. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Any further discussion? Counselor Ireland.

I will not be voting for this. I think the fees went up way too fast. And we're going to hear about it. And ultimately, the consumer are going to pay these fees. So the consumers are already hurting. I think the fees should have been a graduated thing. And also, it disturbs me that someone who makes 251 trips pays the same as someone who makes 999 trips. And I don't even know how we figure out how many trips people make. They have to be honest about it, I guess. Anyway, I think it's going to be something that people are upset with, their own small businesses especially. So I think that we should have done it at a graduated scale. It's a huge jump. So I am a no.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem. I just want to thank staff. I know staff's been working on this for several years, and that we have been trying to work with the Westminster Chamber, talk with businesses, and really right-size this fee, but also ensure that our businesses that, particularly those that are bringing in a lot of traffic through our, I think the International Transportation, I don't know, the ITE, I'm totally forgetting the actual acronym for it, but that is the source that we use to identify just how many trips are generated by certain uses. We have some big retailers that generate a lot of traffic in our city that puts a lot of stress on our roads, particularly trucks are exponential in terms of what they the pressure that they place on our roadway versus cars. So at the time when we started this, both a home and Walmart were paying the same $6 fee. And so what we are trying to do is start the distribution of those impacts and start the payment of those impacts and try to move them over to where they're actually happening. And the proposed rate structure, I know that staff has worked with and will continue to work with our business community. We are really sensitive to small businesses and the impacts on them. But at the same time, we are also being impacted by and providing the service for the larger retailers and their use of our rights-of-way. So thank you to staff for getting where we are and I'll happily be voting for this. Thank you.

Councillor Brawhouse.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Yes, I am really grateful that this is before us. When given the option of the gap in budget, our budget gap on roads, the city has to address the revenue somewhere. And the option was either charge every single residence more, $1 more, $2 more for each person. know on that fee or we could start charging it more equitably and asking for the highest users to actually start paying their fair share and so instead of asking you know a community of retired folks to pave the road so that way these large users like amazon or walmart can just start driving on them and continuing to deteriorate them we're asking these corporations to pay their fair share and the risk will always be there for for businesses to pass on that cost but this is a this is a cost of existing. This is a cost of doing business. And right now we're subsidizing that cost by asking residents to pay for it and using more equitable ways, asking those businesses who are the higher users to do it, and then pass that cost off if they need to, or figure out how to incorporate that into their budget. And this is an opportunity for corporations and for businesses to be able to be competitive, and if everyone's just gonna raise fees but one person doesn't, then there's an opportunity there as well. So I truly believe that this is the first step in many. I think there is some need to kind of continue looking, continue conversing with our businesses to see what the impact is, but at the end of the day, this is just one of many ways that we are trying to alleviate the burden from the everyday resident and asking those with the most money to pay.

Thank you. Councilor Zotti?

Thank you, and I'd like to echo a lot of that. When this first came to us, I remember they had residential also going up. And several of us, I was one of the loud voices saying, look, no, we need to keep the residential at $6 because let's take a moment, take a step back. And I like to do this for every topic that we talk about. Let's take a step back and look at the environment and what's happening. People are getting crushed. Families cannot afford the life that they're living. They need some kind of relief. And before this, big corporations were using our roads for $6 a month. The same as Susan. There's a lovely lady, Susan. She's 68 years old. I know she takes 10 trips a month. Amazon or Waste Management, they're taking thousands of trips a month. Both were paying $6 per month. That was not fair. Big corporations need to be paying their fair share. And we need to not put the burden on our residents. And that's what this does. So I'll be supporting it. Thank you.

I'm going to make my comment, and then we'll go back around for a second. So I'll also say thank you to staff. This is a long time coming. In my opinion, I'm just so grateful that we're finally here. I think I was hoping to get this through last year, but thank you. This is another phase of a big project that the city has been conducting, right? Several years ago, we realized that there was a gap in our roads, and then we tried to figure out what to do with it. And then we passed 3H, which is incredible work. that helped us get a little closer to where we need to be. And now it's our turn on the city side to take accountability for have we been responsible in all of our areas of management with keeping up with our fees and doing our due diligence on who is paying what. And as was already mentioned, This is us being equitable about who is paying their fair share in our city for the use of our roads. And our residents should not be carrying the burden of upholding the majority of that fee of these roads when, as we just heard, a lot of businesses are using the roads at a much higher rate, especially those garbage disposal trucks and haulers. But as our Councillor Ireland mentioned, you know, we want to be equitable around our small businesses as well, and that's why this is tiered. So I think we did a great job, and I'm really excited about it. With that, Councillor Ireland.

I want to be clear that the trash trucks were not included in this, right? Correct. They're not included. Thank you for that correction. And they're the ones that actually destroyed the roads more than any, because they're heavy. And it's the heavy trucks that do it. Even the ones that are doing the water treatment plant right now, I don't know if they're paying anything, but they're going up and down that road. And those are the ones that, when they're doing construction, do the most damage. And we really aren't addressing it. So this isn't our small business the most. I just talked to a restaurant owner They just got a $3,800 bill for recycling. They have to pay recycling for all residents. So who do you think ultimately is going to pay this? Anyone that goes to a restaurant, and the restaurant owners aren't going to be able to stay in business with all these fees that we're tacking on. So I'm a no. It's going to affect small business, even if you think it's not, because it's over double what they used to pay. So I will be no.

Thank you. and I look forward to that hauler discussion soon. Any other comments? All right, roll call please.

Councilor Barajas. Yes. Mayor Carmelia. Yes. Councillor Zaddi. Yes. Councillor Haught. Yes. Councillor Ireland. No. Councillor Johnson. Yes. And Mayor Pro Tem Nurmela. Yes. The motion passes on a 6-1 vote.

Thank you. We will now move on to the naming of McNally Plaza. Do I have a motion? Councillor Haught. I would like to move to authorize the naming of McNally Plaza at Sheridan Green Park. Do I have a second? Mayor Pro Tem. Yes. Thank you so much. Any further discussion? Councillor Ireland.

Since I brought this forward, I want to say a few words. I just have always admired, I call her Mayor McNally. She retired in December, but she was my mayor for 20-some years. I've lived here 40 years, so I appreciate her service. I don't think her retirement, what we did for her was enough, so I brought this forward. We're going to do private funds to do something special there. We're going to put a bench with a pug next to it. And I'm going to be the first to donate. So I don't know exactly how we're going to do the donations, but that's coming forward. And I want to be the first to donate to it.

Seeing her go through cancer with the grace and fortitude I've never seen before in anyone. She showed up to everything, even when she didn't feel well. And her faith made me stronger. And I appreciate, Nancy, if you're listening still, I know it's late, I appreciate you and your example to this community. To do your job the best you can, even when you don't feel well. And I knew I wasn't going to get through this without crying, but I'm doing this for you, that people will always remember what a good, faithful servant you were. Any donations that go above what we need will be for a scholarship in Nancy's name, and she can designate where that money goes, the scholarship. So I encourage everyone out there to donate to this cause. Thank you very much.

thank you so much counselor counselor hot um yes i would like to thank counselor ireland for bringing this forward i'm sorry i didn't realize you brought it forward otherwise i wouldn't have done the motion i'm sorry um but thank you for bringing this forward um um Me and Mayor McNally, we didn't always agree on policy, but that didn't matter. She was a great mayor. Yeah, she wasn't just a mayor. She was a fantastic mayor. She reached a caliber that I don't think that many people do. Her institutional knowledge was so amazing and helpful on this council. She ran a good meeting. She ran a fair meeting. And she's a force. And like Councillor Ireland mentioned, she remained a force while battling cancer. It did not stop. how much she did for the city, how much she did for our residents. It didn't stop how strong she is as a person. And she has impressed me in a way that not many people have. And so it doesn't matter. that we didn't agree on policy. That doesn't matter to me. She is an exceptional person. She is a wonderful person. And she was one of the best mayors I think that we've ever had in this state. And I am so glad that we get to honor her in this way because she really, really deserves it. Thank you. Thank you.

Mayor Pro Tem Nirmala. I bet Mayor McNally's still up. I don't think she sleeps. I was always so impressed with how much she got done. And then she'd tell us that she maybe slept, I don't know, a couple hours overnight. And boundless energy. And I just want to thank Councilor Ireland for bringing this up. Is it enough? I think we can continue to think about how we can honor Mayor McNally and all of the years that she put into this in her round one as mayor and then in round two as mayor and the force that she brought at the end of her her reign You know, she brought forth the 3h and really championed that and I don't think it would have done as well or who knows if it would have passed without her energy and support behind it and like counselor hot said, you know the contribution that she's made regionally as a leader is incredibly impressive. And I think that she has also just impacted and mentored a lot of us sitting here, how to run a meeting, how to be fair, how to be thoughtful and supportive. And yeah, I am very grateful that I had the four years I had with her. So thanks, Councillor Ireland. Thank you.

Councillor Azadi.

Yeah, just to echo everyone's thoughts, I think we... I'll start by saying we need to be very careful who we actually honor in this way with the naming process. But McNally, she's the poster child of the kind of individual that should be honored in this way. It's important. Both things are really important because we shouldn't just be naming things after people. But she's special. She's different. You've heard why from everyone. She will always be special to me. She knows why. I know she's watching. And I'll always appreciate her.

Thank you, okay, well, I also wanna echo, thank you, Councilor Ireland, for bringing this forward. I'm very grateful to you, and I'm really excited to see that pug statue. I can't wait to get out there with former Mayor McNally and celebrate that, because I know she's gonna be very excited about that, too. And to Mayor McNally, we as a council are all still incredibly grateful to you and the example you showed, so thank you. Roll call, please.

Mayor Carmelia. Yes. Councillor Azadi.

Yes.

Councillor Haught. Yes. Councillor Ireland. Yes. Councillor Johnson. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Nurmela. Yes. And Councillor Barajas.

Yes.

The motion passes on a 7-0 vote.

Thank you. That brings us to old business. We will now move on to the second reading of Councillor Bill number 22. Mayor Pro Tem.

I move to pass councilor's bill number 22 with conditions on second reading for the comprehensive plan amendment for Mandalay Gardens, track 10, lot two, to change the current land use designation from commercial to service commercial. Thank you. Do I have a second?

Councilor Brahas? Second. Any further discussion? Roll call, please.

Councilor Azadi?

No.

Councilor Haught? No. Councilor Ireland.

I'm trying to rethink what I'm voting on because I'm so emotional from the last. Can someone tell me what I'm voting on?

The gas station.

This is the public hearing for the quarter.

Oh, the gas station. OK, yes. I'm for that. Thank you.

I'm sorry. Did you say yes? Yes. OK. I apologize. Councilor Johnson.

No.

Mayor Pro Tem Nurmela. Yes.

Councilor Barajas? Yes.

And Mayor Carmelia? Yes. The motion passes on a 4-3 vote.

Next up is the second reading of Councilor Bill 28. Do I have a motion? Mayor Pro Tem Nirmala.

I'll move to pass Counselor's Bill Number 28 on second reading, adding Section 20 to Chapter 1 of Title 10 to the Westminster Municipal Code to provide for traffic regulation through the use of automated vehicle identification systems conditioned on the use of funds going toward traffic safety. Thank you.

Do I have a second? Counselor Johnson.

Second.

Any further discussion?

I did have, Mayor.

Counselor Johnson.

thank you mayor and i know we've had a lot of discussion about this and i did want to raise something that you know i'm going to be a yes right now but it is something that involves probably further conversation with our city attorney's office and it's on um i believe it's section v is not a five let me double check it's not a five it's actually a v yes It is actually a V that deals with the AVI data protections. There is a section that prohibits it from being disclosed, except for certain exceptions that include, obviously, the operation of the system itself, which is needed for disclosure. as it relates to operating the program, for processing violations, and for transferring data if we were ever to get a new vendor or operator, or if there was a court order for that said data. But there is another exception, and I think it goes to a broader conversation about how we use and share data. These are not ALPRs, and so I'm not concerned with the prevalence of them and their usage in the city like I am ALPRs. But there is kind of a broad exception for other law enforcement purposes. And I want to better understand that. And so I'm going to follow up directly with our, you know, maybe our assistant city attorney can answer that question for us.

I'll do my best, sir. Matthew Munch, assistant city attorney. If you'll give me just a moment to call up the text of the ordinance, that being the case, I will... start talking anyways. A couple of the things to be aware of with this is both written into this section of the code, it would be a requirement of law and also would be a requirement of the contract that the machine not be able to even capture. No data will be even gathered in the first place, essentially, unless there is actually a detected violation. So furthermore, the other protection you have is this is accepted not only by this ordinance, but by state law from the Colorado Open Records Act. And the Open Records Act, as you may know, is divided into essentially two parts. You have shall deny exceptions, which means that we are not allowed to give that information out even if we wanted to and may deny exceptions which allow the city clerk to use the city clerk's discretion this would be a shall deny exception we cannot give this out pursuant to an open records act request as you noted it talks about giving this data out upon receipt of a subpoena or court order That's frankly true whether we write it in here or not. Documents that I have at home in my house are available if there's a subpoena or a court order. That's just our legal system. Other law enforcement purposes is, you're correct, is a little bit vaguer, and this is where my filibuster needs to stop. I want to make sure that I get to exactly where it is written. It's B3. Thank you, sir. Yes. I can think of a number of hypotheticals where this might come up. And one of the things we have to do when we're writing these laws is try to give ourselves leeway for the law to be applied in unanticipated situations. You might end up in a situation I could imagine where for whatever reason, rather than issuing a violation through this system. This could be used as evidence for taking that ticket into court through a different means, to essentially use it as evidence. Now that would be a much harder burden to bear. The prosecutors would have to do a lot more work. They'd have to actually bring in witnesses. They would have to lay the foundation for the reliability of this. They would need more than that. This alone would not be enough. But we did not write this to foreclose the possibility of that. You can imagine a situation where an Amber Alert type situation. child is kidnapped, last seen being dragged into a vehicle of this license plate. If that person happens to, again, we would not even capture that unless that person also violated the red light. But if we have that photo of where this vehicle was at this time, not only can we issue the ticket, but if our Westminster police are also chasing down that vehicle, for purposes of trying to save someone's life who's locked in the trunk, they can use it that way. That's just off the top of my head. The reason it was written this way is, one, I didn't write it. This is language taken word for word out of the state statute. We tried to match the state statute as much as possible unless we're told by the city council to do otherwise because it just makes it easier for everyone to know what they're dealing with. But we also write it to be... flexible enough to not hamstring our officers in investigations that we may not anticipate here but i would reiterate this will only be even gathered in the first place in if there is a violation It cannot be disclosed pursuant to Open Records Act, and it was only maintained for a period of three years. This would not be useful information. It would be, even for a law enforcement agency, it would be extremely difficult, possibly prohibitively so, to go through on the back end and do sort of a fishing expedition trying to find, use these violations as evidence of a crime not captured by them. Did that help at all, sir?

Yeah, thank you. That's a very satisfactory answer. I mean, I think when we have that conversation to Councillor Zaddi's point more broadly around how we're using and sharing data, I think it's worth bringing up those examples and having that conversation. But for this ordinance, I think that makes sense and the protections are sufficient.

Thank you, sir. Councillor Zaddi.

Thank you, and thank you for the question, Councilor Johnson. I will say that was not satisfactory for me. I get that you gave some hypotheticals, but that's the point of why it's so important that we actually ban the functionality, because it's not about the label ALPR. It's about the functionality behind it. And those five items that I listed, those are really critical for the future of the city. When we're not here anymore, there'll be future councils that come here, that come through. And what we don't want to do is set that precedent and set the infrastructure and the system and the process so that they can if they care less about the privacy concerns of the residents, they would be willing to expand for any reasons, whether it's speeding, next would be crime, next would be drugs, next would be ember alerts, whatever the reasons are, it's a slippery slope, and I think it's really important that sometimes, Even in an ordinance like this where I thank staff for making sure the controls are in place, or many of the controls, that other law enforcement purposes is a huge gap. It opens up for any reason. That is not the stated speed reason, so that's why I'd be voting no.

Counselor, you understand this is not an ALPR system. It will not be reading license plates. It only detects if there is a speeding violation.

Yeah, and like I said, it's not about the label ARPR. It's about the functionality. There are five pieces of functionality that ARPR does. And it's also about the slippery slope of other uses besides speeding. And that's where, regardless, I'm not in support of this because of that. Does that make sense? Yes, sir. So that's why I'm calling for that study session to ban the functionality in general, but not the camera, but the functionality that's the concerns.

Just to make sure, so this ordinance is written to only permit the, essentially does that, at least as far as this goes, in the sense that it only captures speed violations, violations of essentially running a red light, disobedience to a traffic control device, and it also allows for us to set up cameras to capture overtaking of school buses, although that would require some significant technological advances. This ordinance is already written with some, perhaps not all, but some of the safeguards that you are looking for, sir. But obviously, if it doesn't have all of them, sir, then that is what it is.

Yeah, but some, not all, is the problem.

Yes, sir.

Councillor Brahus.

Thank you. Mr. Munch, would this, I guess, So I'm balancing two things right now. We get so many emails about traffic enforcement or lack thereof in the city. And plenty of us on this council echo them right back and say, yeah, you're right. This is terrible that people are speeding. And so I see this as a potential option. I think a lot of those people who send us those emails and phone calls would want this, though I also am gravely concerned about the privacy. You know, in my mind, is it correct that we do have the, correct me if I'm wrong on the acronym, the ALPR, is that the correct?

I assume ALPR is an automated license plate reader. That is not what this is.

That's not what this is, but we currently have them in operation via city contracts right now or in the city.

I'm sorry, sir. I don't know.

Okay. Because while I think there's just all these questions that come up from it that hopefully we'll get to in the study session that we have. if we need to have that first to be able to write this in the way, or maybe this is just any camera ever, even a security camera outside the city hall is going to be problematic. I'm kind of curious as to what the extent of this is. We had a really robust conversation around street design and kind of traffic enforcement via that way with increased friction. And that is something that takes cities decades to really get into to have a positive impact on safety. And I am not a fan of asking our officers to make tons of more stops or to ask our residents to be stopped even more frequently. I think that's just a higher burden. So I'm just kind of really lost in how to address some of these safety concerns, road safety concerns, while also engaging with these concerns for privacy. And I know I voted yes on it last time, but since then I've been doing more stakeholding and really trying to grapple with this. This is not, I mean, I appreciate you standing here. I'm kind of speaking more towards this body and stuff. But, you know, I don't know if this needs to then just be rehashed post-study session so that way we can either address them or maybe it's an impossibility, like I said. And I guess I'd want to know, is it a futile effort to kind of vote this down now and then come back to it because it'll just never pass even with the most strict safeguards or protocols in place.

Pardon me, sir. I don't know. Like I said, that seemed to be a question directed at the rest of council, but just to make sure that everybody's clear. And I'm not trying to sway anyone's vote. You guys have the hard job here, which is deciding what policies to do and not to do. But to maybe clarify what it is that you're voting on, this is... not an alpr system this is fairly limited the reason why this is such a long ordinance is mainly because if you read it it is mostly safeguards and those safeguards we put in are to comply with the state law state law limits us fairly strictly on what we can and cannot do and we've written this ordinance to match essentially the maximum we can do under state law which is only take these photos in the first place if there's a red light violation, disobedience to a traffic control device, or overtaking a school bus when it has the stop sign and the flashing lights.

Yeah. Sorry. Thanks, Mr. Munch. I appreciate the clarification. I do understand from my perspective, there's a lot of things that hit well with this. And like I said, it's very useful in terms of kind of in that we talked about a lot of these things during first reading, kind of that 18-month cycle of being really impactful to be a detriment to road violations. I guess in my mind, process-wise, and this is less about this specific ordinance and more just process, is if we have this study session, we have some sort of ordinance that comes out of the study session later on, and then whatever ordinance then that can follow is then obviously been filtered through that process and ordinance or redirection that we have from that study session and ordinance on ALPR cameras. And so in my mind, I don't know if it's tabling this. I don't know if it's, and then, OK, we table this. I don't know if we're allowed to table second readings. These are all things that I guess I could have asked earlier. But if then, we can say we have this direction with kind of you know mass surveillance sort of alpr cameras and this still passes that criteria that we as a council decided then that makes sense i guess that's what i'm saying so i do understand your that we are addressing those concerns maybe preemptively but in terms of process that's kind of so less a question to you and more just a question here city attorney

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Councilor. The ordinance that's before Council tonight for second reading I think creates a framework following the state's example that is necessary if Council wants to move forward with having a contract to do the speed enforcement. And I think at first reading, we talked some about that contract containing specific protections. So there is another opportunity, I believe, to have input into how such a program could be implemented in our city. I think, though, you need the framework in place in order to consider that contract, if I'm not mistaken, under state law. So I think that the ordinance that's before you is potentially the first step if council chooses to approve a contract with a vendor to put a system like this into place?

That is correct. Without this ordinance or something relatively similar to it, you would not even be able to explore that option. You would be prohibited from exploring that option with a contractor. This ordinance or something like it would be necessary for you to get started on that.

Any further questions?

I mean, yeah. So I guess then the question that follows then is, you know, and I understand, right, this is then asking, saying we can put out for a vendor. Then when the vendor comes back, we can vote on that. And, you know, there's a multiple step process to this. you know, the mayor told me the other day, you know, this council, we can just, we can do it again, right? Like we can keep on going for this. And so I'm wondering, like, if we say no to this, that doesn't mean that we've created a ordinance saying like the opposite of this, it's just saying, know we can do step one again in my i guess my conversation is should we do step one after we have a framework around alpr cameras to clarify counselor are you requesting that we table this vote until after counselor azadi's requested agenda session regarding alprs i would only do that if it's like gonna be like a valuable table. I don't want to just kind of table this and just move the decision out. But also, if we've, so my question is twofold, I guess. One, if we could table it, but two, if we vote no, we can always bring this up again and say, hey, you know, we should do this again now that we have the framework created. So either one is kind of a function, either one's a functional table or we actually do the tabling. I don't have a specific request or motion. Those are just all thoughts that I have that this body, I'd love to kind of hear more conversation on.

Thank you. Hearing not a specific request, I'm going to address everyone else's comments. Councillor Ireland. I just have questions about the tickets.

So if someone goes one mile over, they could get a ticket.

There is a table somewhere in this document, which I am finding now,

I should have looked at it again, but I didn't.

Which sets forth the very specific things that a person can be fined for and what those fines are.

Do they get to go to traffic court at all? Is it just cut and dry when it's a camera?

Several of them, maximum mine is a mailed warning. Upon receiving that, I apologize.

A mailed warning, if you go like one or two over?

A mailed warning is the maximum for exceeding reasonable and prudent speed by less than six miles per hour. So if one was to be caught speeding going six miles per, sorry, six miles per hour or less, you would not get a ticket of any sort. You would just be, you'd get a probably actually a very polite letter in the mail, but you'd get a letter in the mail. Similarly, a first offense detected through the use of an AVI system. So it's not going to cross-reference with your criminal record to find out if you've had a speeding ticket otherwise. A first time you have been detected using an AVI system for exceeding the speed by more than six, but less than 10 miles an hour. So seven miles per hour, first time you've been detected doing that. That is also only a mailed warning. No ticket for that. First offenses, if one goes more than 10 miles an hour or is detected, so I'm sorry, make sure I get this right. First offense detected through use AVI system for exceeding reason to be by six, less than 10 miles per hour. So first offense can result in a ticket if you're in a school zone for six to 10 miles per hour, if you're in a school zone. If you're not in a school zone, first offense is a warning. Second or subsequent offenses of six to 10 miles per hour result in a $40 fine, and then it goes up from there as you start to speed more. So to answer your permission question, if you go one mile per hour over the speed limit and are detected, no, you will not receive a ticket. Various other... more exorbitant violations, speeding at higher speeds.

And the two places we're putting them, there's not a school zone, is there?

Well, the ordinance allows for a couple of different things. It allows for one, these to be placed anywhere in those designated corridors, which the chief spoke of. They are written in the very end of the ordinance. The ordinance is also written to allow, and it matches the state statute in this way, that outside of those corridors, it can be placed And I apologize. Let me make sure I find this. within school zones, within residential neighborhoods, within designated maintenance construction or repair zones, construction zones essentially, along streets that border municipal parks where you would expect.

So we're moving it around. It's not stationary.

It would be stationary, but the corridors would allow, as the ordinance is currently written, would allow for mobile devices, mobile AVI systems, to be placed at various locations within that corridor. There would still need to be signage requirements and various other things that are in here for protection, and nothing would change the fact that those systems have to be built so as to only capture data if there is a violation.

All right, thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Councillor Azadi.

Thank you, Mayor. I would like to actually motion for a stay on this because I think there are serious criminal justice concerns here, not just the fact that this exception for other law enforcement purposes is in there. You know, using the data for those ambiguous purposes, I think they're a real due process There are real privacy concerns in surveillance expansion, so I would like to actually ask for a stay on this until after the study session where we can talk about some of this functionality that we can potentially ban and then pass it.

Thank you, Councillor. City Attorney, is there any restrictions on that motion?

any thank you mayor the clerk and i were discussing options and certainly council can either pass or not pass this on second reading but the another option could be to just strike that text if it's of concern that text could be removed we publish ordinances by title after their first reading and then we publish them in full after second reading so i think that That edit could certainly be made if that's a desire of counsel To remove the four other law enforcement purposes reference in paragraph V might be one way to address it. I Think you know tabling the second reading Well, we have potentially a scheduling challenge that we don't yet know when the study session would occur. And I think on the second reading of an ordinance, we'd want to have a date certain that we would continue it to. So that could be difficult to know tonight what that date certain would be. I don't know if the edit is an option that council wishes to consider, but certainly that if the motion maker in second agreed to modify their motion in second to strike that text, that's an option that could be accomplished tonight if council desired.

Thank you.

Mayor Pro Temp.

Mayor Pro Temp. Well, what I'm hearing is I don't think that that will do it. Cutting the text will do it. Am I correct in thinking that? Yeah. So I think I'd be open to just continuing to a date certain, but we can push it out so that we don't have like, oh, it's happening in three months. I mean, like if we did six months, nine months, you know, whatever, giving staff enough time to... um i don't mind pushing it out it's not like we're yes traffic sucks speeding sucks but um and i'd love to see something addressed sooner than later but i'd rather have us all be confident and give staff the time so i mean a year nine months Is that too long? Am I crazy?

I don't know how long. You can have a second reading.

What's the max?

We just all said no and started from zero.

I mean, that could happen too.

Well, if the current draft isn't desired, then a no vote would allow for us to start over with a changed draft that could address these concerns. I won't delete all of my notes.

You won't cry either. I will not. Yeah. I don't think we're going to hurt anyone's feelings.

All right. Please, everyone, I'm going to suddenly hit mute. I work for you, sir.

I do what you tell me.

All right. Mayor Broteau, any other thoughts? Okay, I think it sounds like we're ready to take a vote here. Roll call, please. Councilor Haught.

No. My original motion of, do you want to?

I am so sorry, Councilor Azadi made a new motion.

Oh, it wasn't second? That's true. And you still have to do it.

So City Clerk, are we okay to vote on that first motion? Yeah. Yes. Perfect. Thank you.

OK. Councillor Haag? No. Councillor Ireland? No. Councillor Johnson?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Nurmela? I'll go with no, because I originally did yes, but. Councillor Barajas? No. And Mayor Carmelia? Yes. the motion fails on a five two vote no one two five vote oh counselor azadi i'm sorry i'm sorry the motion fails on a 5-2 vote thank you so much okay thank you mr munch for your time and with that uh it is 10 0 8 and we are adjourned i'm sorry

Thank you.