Good morning and welcome to the City of Color Springs work session meeting for Monday, April 13th, 2026.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Casey.

He has to be sworn in.

Well, he's gonna be marked here.

Uh Councilmember Crow Iverson.

Here.

Councilmember Donaldson.

Here.

Councilmember Gold.

Excused.

Councilmember Henjin.

Present.

Councilmember Lion Webber.

Here.

Councilmember Rainey.

Here.

Councilmember Risley.

Excused.

Councilmember Williams.

Okay.

Will the clerk please read item 1A into the record?

Oath of office for Kenneth Casey to serve an unexpired term of the City Council District 2 member until the April 6, 2027 General Municipal Election.

Good morning.

So we have Judge Keynes doing the swearing in for the newly appointed member to City Council, Mr.

Ken Casey.

Please proceed.

Now that Ken Casey has um sworn the oath of office, he will serve the unexpired term of the City Council District 2 member until the April 6th, 2027 General Municipal Election.

Ken, would you like to say anything?

Yes, good morning.

By taking the oath by the ever living God reminds me of the seriousness of the public office I'm about to enter.

I am very thankful for the opportunity to serve the citizens of District 2 and Colorado Springs on Colorado Springs City Council.

In light of my oath, I want to thank Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior for all the blessings on my life.

And speaking of blessings, I want to thank my beautiful wife, Lieutenant Curl, retired Deborah Casey for her unwavering support over 26 years of marriage.

And I want to thank my fellow council members for their support and for welcoming me to the council.

And I'd like to thank the citizens of District 2 in advance for their trust and support.

With that, I'm ready to get to work.

All right, you may take your seat on the dais.

And we will have the name.

That's all that's okay.

Perfect.

Moving on to item two.

Are there any changes to today's agenda?

Seeing none.

We will move on to the regular meeting comments.

Are there any changes to the regular meeting for tomorrow?

Seeing none, moving on to item 4A.

Will the clerk please read item 4A into the record?

City Council Work Session Meeting Minutes, March 23rd, 2026.

Do we have any changes to those minutes?

I have a we don't vote on those.

Moving on to um 5A to executive session.

Will the clerk please read item 5A into the record?

Christopher D.

Grant versus Larry Downard, Richard Homer, Jeremy Wood, Selena McAlpin, case number 2026 CD87.

Good morning, Madam President.

The Civil Action Investigation Committee met and recommends City Council acknowledge the city's obligation to represent the officers and employee involved as required by the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act and the Peace Officers Liability Act.

I need a thumbs up to support that decision, and you have support to move forward with that.

Moving on to item 5AB.

Will the clerk please read item A B into the record?

Christine Morgan versus City, Colorado Swing, Shumaine Study, the Pikes Week Regions, Sean Alexander Medina, Gina Sega, Thomas Allen.

Charlenes Calloway, Nicole, Michron, Avery Barton, Travis Flores, Jeff Ray, case number 25, CV 03529.

Good morning, Madam President.

Sarah Bruin, City Attorney's Office.

The Civil Action Investigation Committee also met regarding this case and recommends that the City Council acknowledges the city's obligation to represent the officers involved as requested by the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act and the Peace Officers Liability Act.

The officers were acting on the course and scope of their employment.

And as usual, uh it is also recommended that the city reserve the right to decline payment of any award of punitive damages.

Can I get a motion or thumbs up?

Thank you.

Moving on to item 5AB, um closed session.

Will the clerk please read item 5AB into the record?

It's a closed session, so that would be Sarah Bruin.

Yes.

Sarah, if you could read us into closed session.

Yes, thank you.

Uh Sarah Bruin, City Attorney's Office.

In accord with City Charter Article 3, Section 3-60 D, and it's incorporated as it's incorporated in the Colorado Open Meetings Act.

The City Council in open session is to determine whether it will hold a closed executive session.

The issue to be discussed involves consultation with the city attorney for the purpose of receiving legal advice regarding the Colorado Voting Rights Act.

The President of Council shall pull the city council members, and upon consent of two-thirds of the members present, may conduct a closed executive session.

In the event any city council members participating electronically or telephonically in the closed executive session, each city council member participating in the closed executive session shall affirmatively state for the record that no other member of the public not authorized to participate in the closed executive session is present or able to hear the matters discussed as part of the closed executive session.

If consent to the closed executive session is not given, the item may be discussed in open session or withdrawn from consideration.

Will a clerk please call a roll to go into closed session?

Councilmember Casey.

Here.

I'm sorry.

Here's it's yes or no to go closed session.

Unfortunately, you're alphabetically first.

That doesn't help.

Yes.

Councilmember Crow Iverson.

Aye.

Councilmember Donaldson.

Aye.

Councilmember Golds, excuse.

Councilmember Hendram.

Aye.

Councilmember Lyon Weber.

Yes.

Councilmember Rainey.

Aye.

Councilmember Risley's excuse.

Councilmember Williams.

Aye.

You have consent.

Okay, we'll need to clear the room and good morning.

We will now resume to our work session meeting.

Um will the clerk please read item 6A into the record.

Safe passage presentation.

Good morning.

And make sure the green button is on so we can hear you.

Um right up there you go.

Okay, good morning.

Thank you so much for having us.

Good morning.

Please introduce yourself for the record.

Maureen Moe Basenberg.

My name's Dan Thompson.

So thank you so much for having us.

Um, happy to kick off your work session today.

Where am I pointing this?

Yep, give me one second.

I'm not able to advance it either.

Oh, okay, cool.

Okay, here we go.

So um, as many of you know, April is child abuse prevention month.

This gives us an opportunity to come before folks like you guys.

Many of you I know.

Um, to talk about the importance of focusing on child abuse in our community and across the United States.

We understand child abuse is preventable, and that we as a community have roles and responsibility we can play in terms of understanding the gravity and the impact it has on our community.

So we're gonna talk a little bit about the impact in El Paso County.

Um we do continue to lead the state in the number of calls to the Department of Human Services hotline.

So I'm here representing Safe Passage Child Advocacy Center.

So a child advocacy center model is that child-focused uh model that brings together multiple disciplines in one space.

Um there are 19 child abbacy centers across Colorado.

So why ours is unique and special, and I know many of you had taken the time to come through and see Safe Passage, so thank you very much.

So ours is unique because we are the only co-located version of the CAC model in the state of Colorado, meaning that all those partner agencies that you see in that slide are located physically in our space.

Um we will celebrate the fifth anniversary of that co-location um in October of this year, and we serve the fourth judicial district.

So, new in 2025 was the ability for us to bring in our own mental health counseling program in-house.

So prior to that, we had partnered with a community-based mental health provider who were fantastic.

They're still a partner to us, but we were able to bring in our own staff, um, two therapists, trauma-informed care, allowing us to make sure that that mental health service is integrated, um, allowing us to jump from serving two kiddos on site for therapy in 2024 to 44 in 2025.

Those therapy services, by the way, are provided free of charge.

Um, right now we're focusing on kids who come through the advocacy center.

Um, we're not at a place where we can provide it to the greater community, but however, we're really pleased that we were able to provide that growth.

Um, you'll also note the jump in crisis services that were able to be provided as children move through the child abuse investigation process at Safe Passage.

Okay, so we're gonna try a video, and on a Monday morning, I'm not sure why I decided to do this, but let's see.

Thank you.

If I was nervous about what was going to happen to me, I would want to come to a safe place.

If I had to go to a new place to talk about something I was embarrassed about, I'd want to have good snacks.

I would want someone to tell me I would be okay.

If I needed to talk to someone about my pool about something that happened to me.

So I'm gonna show you a couple slides about um our services by the numbers.

Um, this is for the year of 2025.

Uh 791 primary child victims that we served, and 731 caregivers were served.

Um we also saw 858 children that were uh non-victims.

A huge jump for us in that came from kids who were cared for that were um there with mental health uh therapy kiddos.

So dramatically increase from 24 to 25 in that number.

36 forensic medical exams performed by UC Health Forensic Nurses.

But 547 kids were able to talk to those nurses about concerns or questions that they may have had related to the abuse that they experienced.

So there's a breakdown of the race and gender of the victims served and the ages of the victims that were served in 2025.

There's a mix of our funding overview question that I often get.

We're really proud of the diversification of funding streams that we've achieved so that we're not heavily reliant on one particular funding stream.

I'm going to turn it over to Commander Thompson now.

So when we start talking about the police department's uh collaboration with Safe Passage, this is a strong one.

Obviously, we're the largest contributor from a law enforcement perspective as it relates to Safe Passage.

When we start talking about the co-located strength of that, we start talking about the wraparound services that are provided.

When it comes to a law enforcement presence, we have law enforcement investigators, forensic interviewers that are co-located out in the building itself.

And so the largest presence that we have is with our crimes against children unit.

We have two supervisors that oversee 10 detectives.

We have a forensic interview unit that includes one supervisor, and when fully staffed, we have three investigative specialists.

The forensic interview unit, those ladies are specifically focused on conducting child-led interviews.

Law enforcement officers ask very direct questions.

The forensic interview unit lead child-led interviews.

Those interviews are conducted in a very open manner.

Those interviews would be conducted in a way where the questions would be open-ended.

You know, tell me who lives in your house, what do you like living in, or what do you like about the folks in your house, what don't you like about the folks in your house?

That usually leads us into a line of questioning that allows that child to drive that interview in a manner where they're the ones who are disclosing unfortunate acts of abuse that they're the ones driving that narrative.

Along with the crimes against children unit, we also have two investigators that are responsible for investigating crimes against at-risk adults.

That includes the intellectually and developmentally delayed.

And so as you can see, we've got a very large footprint when it comes down to the folks that we have physically assigned there at Safe Passage.

When we start talking about the types of cases that are conducted out of the building from a law enforcement perspective, most folks don't ever hear about these types of cases.

Unfortunately, those investigators conduct approximately 650 to 800 cases a year with the crimes against children unit.

Those are the cases that typically don't make the news.

So the interviews that they conduct for a kiddo who is three is very, very different than how they would conduct an interview for the kiddo who is 17.

They also have uh a strong foothold when it comes down to interviewing individuals who are intellectually and development, developmentally delayed.

So we pride ourselves with the police department of being victim-centered, trauma-informed, and offender focused.

And so what that means for us is that we are always focused on what the victims' perspective is.

We are focused on being able to provide victims with the wraparound services as it relates to safe passage.

It is a one-stop shop, is the best way to put it.

We're able to bring a victim there.

They're able to interact with their investigators.

They're able to provide or be able to receive victim services.

They're able to be re able to re excuse me, be able to get the medical care and then be able to receive mental health resources.

And so having previously served in our crimes against children unit as a sergeant a few years back when we were not co-located.

While we had a very strong partnership with our safe passage partners, unfortunately back in those days, we were having to send kids and their families to different locations.

And so we would meet them at Safe Passage, but if they needed mental health resources, if they needed medical resources, they were going to different locations.

And so now with the methodology that we have in place, we're able to bring them to one general location, and they're able to get all of the resources that they need in one specific location, which proves that it's a victim-centered approach.

So in addition to the victim services piece that we do day to day, we are also able to use this co-location model on this platform to raise awareness within the community regarding the challenges our community faces and the ability that the community has to assist the kids in our community to keep them safe.

We also are leading efforts in community collaboration.

A gift of the space that we created is that we have the physical location and size to be able to host a number of community-based events, which lets us convene everything from school counselors to clinical directors on the routine basis.

So, what does the future hold for us?

So we are looking to do some more expansion in terms of our mental health staff.

We sit at a wait list of 12 to 15 children, and so we'd like to be able to address that.

We're also tracking population growth.

I think we're all aware of growth in the East.

And actually, the last time that Chief Vasquez toured, we had a discussion, and pleased to say that he brought up Safe Passage as part of their eye toward growth and being able to serve that eastern population.

So in our current strategic plan, tracking that is the phase one of potentially a satellite location in our future.

So I'm gonna take a moment to express some gratitude, if you'll indulge me.

Commander Thompson and I have worked together for seven years.

He is about to be promoted to his final assignment prior to retirement.

And so if you will just give me one second, I'd like to present him with a token of our appreciation.

Surprise it wasn't in the slide deck I gave you.

It was not for your years of dedication to the children and families in our community.

You know you're a true believer, and there's so much we couldn't have achieved and done without you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Pretty much no, pretty much no.

So, any questions for the commander right?

Councilman Rainey.

Thank you, Madam President, and thank you both for being here and highlighting uh this really critical program.

I truly more than words can imagine.

Um appreciate everything that you do there.

Um, I've known you for a couple years now, and uh had the opportunity of going through the facility.

Uh one of the questions I do have uh for funding purposes, because I know you're looking at wanting to expand staff.

Uh so I'm gonna try to hit you with a bunch of questions so that way I don't have to constantly go back and forth.

Uh, when it comes to funding, um, where do you think you're currently at and uh where do you get a majority of your funding?

Question of one one.

Two, can you take the opportunity to step us through what an intake looks like for a child coming in?

And the third question for um the officer here is um looking at your current staffing and that nice bull pinbag there and looking at some of the budget cuts that we had to take here in the city.

Did you experience any significant impact?

And if so, how are you able to kind of navigate through that?

Okay, so I'm gonna take that first question or in terms of funding.

So we do have a really great diversification in terms of um we I might pull my development director up here, but I think I got it.

Um so we do have us, you know, some state support in terms of the state budget assists us.

Um we have uh private foundations and grants that support us as well.

Um, and we have you know some fundraising events as well that support us.

And so um looking across those, um, we've found success in general operating requests that we're able to then place into.

So there's two services that we provide to the children and families that we serve that are free.

The nurse, the medical encounters, no family pays for that service, and the mental health encounter.

So we're typically funding those out of general operating requests that we're able to put forward to foundations and grants.

And so that's the short answer.

Um, and so it's really about how do we strategically carefully grow that while being respectful of not overextending ourselves.

Um, if I can be frank, you know, the conversation we're having right now is that it's wonderful to celebrate five years in our space, and everyone is so um really uh appreciative of the space that we've created, but not to get too nerdy about this, but we are in a place where we are facing budget challenges around depreciation.

So, in order to keep your building looking great, you have to have the reserves to be able to pay for whenever those rainy day funds are needed, and we're eating a bit into that in order to maintain the growth that we put forward.

So I we're in budgeting right now, actually, giving our draft to our finance committee today.

And so we're watching that deplete and beginning to have some yellow flags around we're not in a in a crisis, we're not gonna cut any services, but we need to be careful for sure.

Um, in terms of an intake, so the most common way that a kiddo is gonna get to us is that a mandated reporter, usually a school personnel picks up the phone and calls into the Department of Human Services hotline or maybe into law enforcement's non-emergency number to tell that a kiddo had made a disclosure to them that something may have happened.

Um depending on what that disclosure is, will you know tell us whether the timing of how that kiddo gets to us.

If we have concerns that there's an immediate emergent need, like that kid was gonna return from school to that perpetrator, they're gonna come in right away, right?

And that's all coordinated through systems.

So it's law enforcement or DHS is that that's gonna get that kiddo to safe passage.

Um and then once they're there, then the investigative process starts.

So a caregiver has been contacted, retrusting that they're supportive.

Um, and then there's some they are assigned a family support advocate that's a safe passage staff that walks them through the entire investigative process, helps answer their questions, give them resources, and guides them through everything that they need to do that day.

Their forensic interviewer is going to be in that team meeting and then is gonna meet with the kiddo and go and conduct their forensic interview while the caregiver has their advocacy portion.

After that's all done, they're gonna have their contact with the nurse, and then that's done, they're gonna have a mental health screening, depending on the outcome of that screening, they might have additional steps.

Um meanwhile, that investigative piece is happening and we're determining safety.

Ideally, we have a protective caregiver who they can go home while they're doing their work and following up on catching that perpetrator.

Um it's kind of making it making it brief for you there.

So every family is followed up five to seven days after in order to make sure that they don't need any additional services or support or have any questions while Department of Human Services is doing their piece and the detectives are doing their piece to pursue safety.

Um some cases obviously are able to go all the way through to prosecution to trial.

Um, some cases are not, depending on the circumstances of any sort of criminal element that was able to be determined.

Okay.

Thank you for the question.

So, and to answer your question in terms of how the restrictions from a budgetary standpoint have affected operations, we've had to be more diligent in terms of how we've deployed resources.

And so the biggest impact that we've been able to have is obviously from a personnel standpoint, there's only so much that you can do in terms of the personnel, the staffing that comes along with it.

Um, the biggest impact has been in our overtime expenditures.

And so we've had to be pretty diligent in terms of how we use those resources.

And so we've put in some restrictions in terms of how we use the overtime budget that we had in place, uh, making sure that we've put the proper restrictions in place to do our part as it relates to making sure that we're helping balance the city budget.

And so we've had to be more diligent about the safety functions that Mo is talking about.

And so we've worked more hand in hand with DHS with our patrol components, uh making sure that if there's not a safety nexus to where you know we're not sending a kid home to uh a perpetrator, that most circumstances is that we're going out and we're working a lot of those investigations the next day as before.

Before we had those financial um restrictions, in some situations, we were providing more immediate resources to families to doing investigations more in the moment.

And so we've had to, in some situations, push those investigations on to the next day during business hours where we're not having to incur financial costs that are above and beyond what our normal operating budgets are.

And so there are some circumstances where we can't avoid the overtime circumstances where we're potentially we we can't offset sending a kid home to a perpetrator and we have to do something right then and there.

But there are other circumstances where we can and do because of the overtime restrictions that we have in place.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

And once again, um I don't really talk about this a whole lot when it comes to myself, but um, you know, most people know me as the defense satellite space guy.

Uh what they don't know is that the second half of me is a uh certified counselor.

And uh so I'd always have a soft heart when it comes to seeing what you all do over there.

Um, continue to do the great things and uh just know that you definitely have someone who's here to support in any way I can.

Thank you, councilman.

Councilman Casey.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um as a new member of council, I had not heard of Safe Passage before, but it sounds like a great program.

I'd be interested in in touring your facilities you mentioned sometime.

I just said one quick question for you.

On your slide number two, you said that Colorado leads the way in number of cases or number of calls.

Is Colorado Springs also then disproportionately have more cases than other like sized cities do know.

Oh, um, so sir to clarify, El Paso County leads the way in the state.

Okay.

Yeah.

So um, and that has been historically the case for over 10 years.

Um, in terms of the why, it's very difficult to tease that out.

Um, you know, I can take a positive stance on that and say that we are a very educated community that's engaged in children's safety and knows to pick up the phone and make that call.

Um, you know, we can also tease out other factors in terms of the number of families that move in and out of our community and might not have um safety connections and and um long-term, you know, community connections that that maybe lead to more cases.

Um, but that that's how that slide was uh referring to.

Thank you.

Councilman Henjam.

I thank you, Madam President.

Good morning.

Um so glad you're here.

Good morning, thank you.

And I I really I mostly just want to thank you for your leadership and for your collaboration with all the various entities, um, the health system and the sheriff's department, please, et cetera.

Um, you're doing phenomenal work, and this is super important in our city.

And I just want to make sure for people, I don't know if you have any seats left for your luncheon on Thursday where you're raising funds.

Okay.

Um I'll be dare pay her.

She did not.

Um I am going, and um, it's a it's a it's a great luncheon.

It's an opportunity to learn more about the impact of safe passage.

Um, and of course, you don't have to go to give money to safe passage.

Thank you.

Councilman Williams.

Thank you.

Um, I don't want to presume that this is a one-to-one ratio, but the number of children you had coming in didn't appear to equal the number of counseling sessions.

So I didn't know if that was a case of not every child needs a counseling session, or like with all the adults in El Paso County, there's not enough counselors.

So if you could address that, I appreciate it.

Yeah, thank you so much, councilwoman.

So um maybe both.

Um, so every child who comes through um has the opportunity to meet with our mental health staff.

Um, it's a variety of things.

So some children aren't ready immediately in the moment to access mental health services.

Some children come to us already being engaged with a mental health provider.

Um, some children we aren't the best fit for.

Um, so some children um, if they have access to insurance and we can provide another qualified provider reference, we're gonna refer them there.

Um, we really do try to triage people who would absolutely not have access to therapy um because financially they couldn't make it, being that we are one of the few free providers.

Um we also um per our national accreditation standards, we provide very specific modalities of therapy.

So we're also looking to match kids that would benefit from those modalities as well.

So it's kind of a matrix of decision making.

Also, these are complex cases.

So the caseload that my therapists can handle is honestly relatively low compared to a clinician who's gonna handle you know, maybe kids who are experiencing divorce, or you know what I mean?

It's kind of a complex um caseload to handle.

So I hope that helps.

So, in your opinion, is there a gap, or the reason it looks like there's a gap is just because children are being, you know, helped other places.

Well, there is a gap.

Um, so as I mentioned, we have an existing wait list of 12 to 15 at any given time.

So if I had the funds to hire another clinician today, I'd address that wait list instantly.

Would another wait list be following that clinician?

Probably.

Um, so you know, but one at a time, and again, being physically responsible, um, so that um I'm not overstepping what we have the capacity to provide for.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman Lineweber.

Mo, thank you for all you do.

Thank you.

Um I got a chance to tour, and uh I was really really impressed.

Because I think if there's one population in this town that we need to do everything to protect, it's our kids by far, period.

Like, no question.

Absolutely.

It's it's a given.

And thank you, sir, for uh really uh being part of this team, and obviously you've got an award, so you've done a good job.

Smile.

But it there's this there's a tough question that I keep kind of banging up against.

Um, and and I just um I just wanted to kind of just hear from you.

Um, you know, we 791 victims, that's two a day at least.

I mean, that's not a number to be proud of by any means.

And um, and so um, and then most of those um really um stemming from within the family, right?

And yet we live in a community that really believes in parental rights.

And the conflict that kind of happens in those moments has just got to be so real because yeah, we don't want government influence, but we absolutely want government influence.

You know, I mean, it's like it's kind of how do you wrestle with that?

How do you I mean, what kind of insight?

I mean, give me some perspective of how you kind of deal with that because I mean, obviously, and this could be a little bit on the the legal side too and the police part, but I just want to try to grapple with it a little bit because it's gotta be such a difficult place because you've got these parents that feel strongly about something, yet they're right in that abuse category, and that makes it really difficult, right?

So I just I know this is a tough question, but I I just feel like it needed to be kind of brought up because this is the this is the this is the the butt, this is the this is the hurt you don't want to push, right?

So help me understand it a little bit more.

I could go a lot of ways with this.

Um, what pops to mind right now is that a lot of our generation was misinformed when we as uh a culture started to understand child abuse.

So we're still getting over our misinformation of the guy who showed us a puppy with a van.

You see where I'm going with that?

Yeah, I do.

So definitely.

So I think the generation of my kids are being raised to understand, sure, those people exist.

Don't I mean I teach my kids go to kid power, but like also understanding that threats are closer to home, people who have access to us, people who we implicitly trust, positions of trust.

There's a special designation legally for that, right?

So we got off on the wrong foot culturally, in terms of understanding.

Um, and I think if you take a step back and understand abuse dynamics and pull that apart, that's gonna begin to correct an understanding that it's always been this way.

So I can I could see that.

I think there's a cultural aspect.

Yeah, just I mean, one way to start to pull the ball of yarn.

Yeah.

Well, I think there's a lot of pieces to that, and yeah, I'd like to like to hear your response too, sir.

And I would agree with that.

You know, when we start talking about the 650 to 800 cases a year that my investigators work, I can count on one hand, how many of those are not familial ties or somehow incorporated into some sort of a family structure where it's mom's boyfriend, it's grandpa, it's dad.

Um, and so I think there is a misnomer that the threat comes from inside the family.

And so there has to be a recognition culturally that while there is sanctity within the family, there also has to be an understanding of safe boundaries within the family.

And so when you start to talk about what does that look like from a law enforcement perspective, we have to be aware of the fact that those dynamics exist.

And then we also have to be aware of the fact that it the families wrestle with these dynamics themselves.

Um, you have these secrets within the family, is that you will have an offending parent and then a parent who is protective or would have otherwise been protective had they known that these dynamics exist.

And so my investigators are well aware of how to navigate these difficult situations and working collaboratively with the partners with the district attorney's office, DHS, our collaborative partners with um Safe Passage to try and get to the best outcome possible.

Um, because in most situations, not only do you have an offending parent or somebody within that familial structure, but you also have somebody who is being torn apart, not just the kiddo.

You have somebody who is blindsided and who their world is also being torn apart.

And so trying to find a way to help this family unit now navigate these very difficult situations, whether it's um, you know, something that we're gonna be able to prosecute or not, um, that at the end of the day, the accusations themselves, even if there's not an arrest being made for a variety of different reasons, it is going to change the entire dynamic of that relationship.

And so, how do we try and work collaboratively to to make that family as whole as possible on the back end of those types of accusations?

So that leads me to my last question, which is related, because we know this, right?

What you just said, I wanted to get a firm foundation.

So for the rest of us in the community.

It's tough.

I mean, those kids aren't my kids or their kids, right?

I shouldn't get involved.

I shouldn't do something.

Uh or should I do something?

Should I respond?

How does the community respond if the question comes to their mind?

Like, like how does how does a neighbor respond when they it's something said or something's visible or something is what's the steps that a neighbor or a trust, you know, or or someone that's engaged in that, you know, what what should be the appropriate response from the community?

I think all too often people are worried about hurting other people's feelings.

They're worried about stepping into a realm that's not their own.

Um, they take the the perspective of, well, that's not the way I would do things, but there are absolutely circumstances where as community members, we should be looking out for the sanctity of our children.

Absolutely.

Um, and just because it's not my kid doesn't mean that I can't care for somebody else's kid and doing the right thing for somebody else's kid, knowing that the right thing is not always the easy thing to do.

And so there is absolutely a difference between that's not the way that I would do things, and that's absolutely wrong.

And so having the courage to when I was a sergeant in the unit, we had a quote, and it was, you know, dare to reach your hand into the darkness and pull somebody into the light.

And so when you have those circumstances where you can say that goes far and beyond above and beyond just that's not the way I would do things.

And a kiddo trusts you as an adult to bring information that you know is wrong to go above and beyond, call law enforcement, call DHS, and being able and willing to have the courage to make a report.

We're not asking anybody to investigate anything.

That is what my detectives and my investigators get paid to do is to investigate those things.

We will be the ones to figure out whether or not there's anything to it.

But we need somebody to give us that information at the onset so that we can start that investigation.

And so we need somebody to make the difficult decision to have the courage to notify us that that's occurring because unless we know about it, we can't do anything to help.

And so what exactly is what which there's so many numbers lately, right?

What is the number to call?

So uh in most situations, calling our non-emergency number, which would be the seven one nine four four four seven thousand.

Obviously, if there's some sort of immediate risk to a family, um, the nine one one obviously is going to be the the biggest um issue.

You know, if a kiddo is getting returned to um an offender, nine one one probably comes the most important aspect of things, or call in DHS.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Seeing no other questions or comments from the dice, thank you so much for coming in.

It's a very sobering topic, but very, very important.

And if you want to give me nine of those, I will make sure that everybody gets them.

And congratulations on your appreciate it, madam president.

My next assignment.

Your next assignment is.

Could we snap a quick picture right here before we go?

Oh, you want to picture down front?

Oh, for sure, of course.

We can um come up front for a celebratory picture if everybody wants to meet you in the front.

Moving on to item six B.

Will the clerk please read item six B into the record?

Restoration of Acacia Park Band Show.

Good morning, Trevor.

Can you make sure that your green light is on so we can hear you?

Wonderful.

My name is Trevor Deerdorf.

I'm president of the downtown Rotary Club of Colorado Springs.

Last summer I was in Acacia Park with my eleven-year-old granddaughter, Felicity.

There were dozens of kids playing in Uncle Wilder Fountain, and there was a bustling farmers market going on in the middle of the park.

But at the south end of the park, sat a historic band shell.

Dark, dirty, quiet.

An ignored remnant from the past.

Once the heartbeat of our city, but for generations, it's been silent.

And not because we didn't need it, but because we let it die.

It's capturing twenty-five hundred square dancers using our perk.

Today, however, after decades of disuse, abuse, and neglect, its usefulness faded.

That once vibrant stage now sits quietly decaying.

Only photos document its former vitality.

The music has long since faded.

Every great city has a park where its community comes together.

Ours should be Acacia Park.

We have a central gathering place in downtown Colorado Springs is underutilized, underprogrammed, and underperforming for our community.

And when spaces like our band shell sit idle, they don't just miss opportunity.

They invite the wrong kind of activity.

This is not an ending.

This is an opportunity.

It's a chance to restore what was lost and build something even greater for the generations ahead.

So why this matters?

For a city our size not having mid-size outdoor venues to gather to participate in the arts.

So it's been a community effort.

The man shell will not happen without our community's leaders uniting to get it done.

And I'm proud to tell you that they are in a big way.

Over 40 community leaders have formed five committees with one shared goal.

We're going to have an economic impact on our community with creative industry jobs, activating downtown and strengthening local businesses.

With the vision being live music, arts programming, and community celebrations.

What we're building is simple.

What we're building is important.

A fully reactivated band shell in the heart of downtown Colorado Springs, a place where people choose to gather, not avoid.

A place where strangers become neighbors and neighbors become friends.

Rotary's theme for this year is Unite for Good.

Which you might see my lapel pen here.

And as president of the Rotary Club of Colorado Springs, it's my goal to live that out in a meaningful way.

This effort is being led by the Rotary Club of Colorado Springs in close partnership with the Downtown Partnership.

I want to thank Michelle Winchell in particular for her role with her organization helping to move this forward alongside Connie and Jake with City Parks Department.

Doug Gregg with RTA and other stakeholders were actively aligned people in planning, doing the planning needed to make this happen.

Invite Michelle to come up and continue.

Thank you.

Michelle Winchell, Director of Creative Economy for Downtown.

So Trevor's painted a vision here for us, and I'll get into the weeds a little bit more and how this project connects to bigger picture initiatives and the evolution of the site plan so far.

So downtown joined the project team for this at the end of last year.

And I agree with Trevor that one of our community's strengths is collaboration.

We're able to accomplish big visionary goals through our partnerships when we work together.

And this recognizes the vital role of arts and culture in enhancing the economic and civic capital of communities, supporting workforce attraction and retention, and improving quality of life for visitors and residents.

So there is interest in positioning Colorado holistically as a music state.

Our culture of live music, especially combined with our amazing outdoor recreation, is very appealing.

Fulfillment of the downtown Historic Park's master plan for Acacia Park is very important and very aligned with the goals of the new Elevate Downtown Plan.

Events and public space activations are central to downtown's vibrancy and economic success.

Population growth and development will continue to supply a demand for a broader spectrum of activities across downtown's different neighborhoods.

And this is some fun data from our recent state of downtown.

You can see that our population of downtown residents has nearly doubled in the last year.

In fact, so quickly that it broke our tracking software.

I've included a couple of slides from the National Independent Venue Association.

They replaced their national economic research study for independent live entertainment venues last June.

And this report included data broken out by state.

So we have some of the Colorado numbers here.

You can see significant economic impact.

And then on this tourism breakdown slide, you can see the impact of tourism spending.

So while we're not suggesting that a renovated band shell would have the tourism draw of, say, a red rocks, a strong local live music scene can certainly have tourism impact, particularly as a stay extender.

Since connecting with Rotary about this project at the end of the year, a lot of the creative district's energy has been directed towards connecting the design team with end users and industry experts.

That's included some of the people in this room today from our local arts nonprofits, local venue operators, an audio engineer, and then some input from the Levitt Foundation.

This is also a good place to mention our Arts Vision 2030 Cultural Plan for the Pikes Peak region, which specifically calls out this hole in our infrastructure and need for more small to mid-sized venues and specifically outdoor performance space to showcase our area's natural beauty.

Levitt Foundation, for those who are not familiar, is a national foundation whose mission is to strengthen the social fabric of America by activating outdoor spaces with live music.

So they supplied some really helpful tips on the venues that they've built across the nation to help inform this project.

So all of that information has led us to the current evolution of the plan.

This is still in progress and is evolving.

There's a deep desire from all parties to be respectful of the historic nature of the structure, which is Trevor said was built in 1914.

The current stage configuration was a later addition from 1939, not a part of the original structure.

If you look at the top right of the image, the dotted line represents the current stage configuration.

Right now, performers are very divorced from the audience because the stage shape is really deep and it's not very well suited to the types of events that we would like to see the park activated with.

So what RTA has proposed is widening the stage with ADA access via the ramp, also very helpful for moving musical equipment in and out, and then adding this canopy that would provide shade for the performers, would not actually be attached to the historic structure and would provide attachment points for lighting infrastructure and speaker infrastructure.

The south part of the band shell would be renovated into usable green room space for artists.

And then this is the full site plan draft.

So in this version, um, one of the things that we really learned from all the community input was the importance of it really feeling like a venue, not like you just happen to be in the park and there's music going.

So the sloped grass amphitheater lawn on that south end would really provide a designated seating area for people who are enjoying music and performance.

Um the architects estimate that would hold the central area would hold about a thousand people, and then those side flat grass areas would hold about an additional thousand.

Also, critical to this site plan is restrooms.

So the visitor hub to the north would be renovated into public restrooms.

Um there's been additional information from the audio engineer about some of the infrastructure that would be necessary to support different types of events.

The working group has really been focused on kind of two use scenarios, one that's really for live for local musicians, and one that could potentially be ticketed performances presented by different organizations, so making sure that there's the infrastructure in place to support that.

Um the project scope is still being defined.

And with that, um, Kim Keen will talk a little bit more about how this aligns with the master plan for the park.

Good morning, President Crow Iverson and Council members.

My name is Kim King.

I'm the acting director for the Parks Recreation and Cultural Services Department.

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this presentation this morning.

As mentioned, taking a step back, this image actually shows the approved downtown Historic Parks Master Plan, which included Acacia Alamo and Parks, which was developed and finalized between actually 2018 and 2020.

While approved in early 2020, the COVID epidemic interrupted our momentum and our intended fundraising campaign.

However, we've kept looking for opportunities to move aspects of the plan forward.

We now have the chance to address the band shell and restrooms through the rotary effort with downtown partnership in the city.

These projects are in alignment with the Acacia Parks Master Plan and speak to the citizen input received during the plan's engagement process.

Examples include citizens feeling that the park was underperforming in terms of activation and use.

Cleanliness, safety, and basic amenities ranked highly as top desires for improving the park.

Finally, investments in additional maintenance, natural features, and again physical improvements that support programming and activation were ranked as most important to the public.

So overall, these survey results support the project under discussion today.

The historic aspect, the potential for activating the park, specifically the band shell, and the desire to feel safe and have comfort amenities when visiting all align with our renovation and this plan being put forward.

This is an image of Acacia Park, a historic image.

But really, what's interesting about it is how much hasn't changed over the years.

We still have those tree-lined wide sidewalks, and we really recognize that as one of the initial parks put forward within the city that we want to ensure that historically that preservation is still a top priority, and it is for all three partners in this project.

We are highly focused, the parks department, on any renovations that could impact the exterior of the structure.

In fact, our goal is to avoid any direct attachments to the exterior of the building to ensure its historic integrity.

And in the prior slide where it was showing the canopy that is not actually attached to the building itself, but has its own structured structure to support it.

So even like I said, the proposed covering would be supported through its own structure, which we feel again is a nod to ensuring that historic aspect of the building remains within the band shell.

It definitely highlights what has been accomplished from the master plan to date.

On the left side of the photo, you can see the new playground work that was funded through a successful Tabor Ballot initiative.

Our seasonal ice rink placement and enhancements as well as irrigation upgrades have been completed by our maintenance and operations crews over the last few years.

Activation has also increased with the addition of a Sunday Farmers Market.

This photo includes that event.

You can kind of see how the tents come out from the center on each of the walkways.

This last year was every other Sunday.

This year it's going to be every Sunday.

It's been very popular.

It's a great addition to the park site.

And then finally, there's no doubt that partnerships are critical for the department and the city in providing our community with the programs, services, and amenities the citizens desire, especially during a challenging budget year where funding is prioritized on daily operations.

The opportunity to address capital needs is huge.

This project is a stellar example of that partnership in action with each entity taking on aspects of the project to bring it to a successful conclusion.

The rotaries initiatives in terms of process design and fundraising, as well as the downtown partnership's input around activation and their support of long-term maintenance of restrooms, allows the city to lead and manage the actual construction effort affecting city property and city assets.

The project scope is still being refined, including the final renovation design of the band shell, as well as addressing the need for restroom facilities to support the anticipated increase in activation of the site.

No construction will begin until all agreements are finalized and funds are in place.

Agreements between the partners are currently being drafted for the band shell renovation with a separate agreement and discussions regarding long-term maintenance of the proposed renovations and additions of the restrooms.

The city and the department want to thank once again the rotary and the downtown partnership for their vision and commitment to make that vision a reality.

At this time, I'd like to turn it back over to the rotary for final remarks regarding this fantastic project.

Thank you.

Let me help you picture what this becomes.

June 2027.

The Acacia Park Band Shell is reborn.

Featuring a wider stage built for real performances with modern lighting and sound that can support everything from local bands.

Don't do my reveal yet.

Oh, I'm guessing maybe you had transitions in there.

I apologize.

I have black slides on purpose.

Make them look at me.

All right.

It's all right.

So if you'll just picture it for me, this wider stage, more shallow, getting closer to the performers.

Behind it, a green room designed to support uh performers, whether it's a concert, a play, or a community event, out front, a 2,000 square foot dance floor.

A 9,000 square foot sloped lawn where families will gather lawn chairs, blankets, all there to enjoy a concert.

And supporting all of it, a renovated hub building with restrooms that can handle events of up to a thousand people, because if we're going to activate a space, it has to actually work.

And activation is a key word here.

We have a dedicated team focused on programming and sustainability with a clear goal of activating this space at least a hundred days a year.

Because when spaces are active, they don't just feel safer, they are safer.

In cities across the country, when spaces like this are revitalized and actively programmed, crime is dropped by as much as 40%.

That's what happens when a space is filled with the right kind of attack activity instead of left empty.

When this project is complete, we'll get more than a renovated band shell.

We get a downtown park that is more vibrant than it has been in generations.

More people, more energy, more connection, a place where families choose to spend time, where local talent has a stage, where our community shows up for itself and each other.

And that's not just nice to have.

So what I'm asking for from this group is not funding.

But I'm asking you to help move this forward.

If you believe in what this can become, help build the momentum behind it.

Because projects like this don't happen on their own.

They happen when people like us decide they matter.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's very exciting.

Um what is your funding mechanism and how much is this gonna cost?

So our funding mechanism.

Right now, yep.

Um, we're expecting to get funding from a variety of sources.

Uh, we have applied for uh at this point about three million dollars in uh state and federal funding.

Uh we also expect we'll get some some grants from our local philanthropists.

You all know who they are, and I think that they're gonna be excited about this project.

And um, it's we're probably not gonna get this done with a bank sale.

But as far as the cost goes, uh there's been there's been a range of estimates at this point.

The step that we're in right now is RTA, the architects who have done most of the planning for this, is gonna be sharing uh their list of requirements with several contractors in the area, and we're expecting to get some stronger numbers in the next two, three weeks.

Councilman Williams.

Thank you, President Carl Iverson.

Trevor, thank you for coming today, and and thank you for leading this in conjunction with all of the other partners.

Um, obviously, as you and I have discussed, this is in district three, and um you've invited me on more than one occasion, and it hasn't quite worked out yet.

But one of these days I will make it to the rotary meetings and get a firsthand look at everyone involved with this.

So thank you.

Um it is necessary, and it it's a way to show how much we care about our community.

And it's one of those things that living here, you always wonder how we get here, and here we are.

But now we're taking that step to fix it and really bring it back and into the community into the park system.

So thank you.

Absolutely.

Councilmember Hincham.

Uh, thank you, Madam President.

Good morning, Trevor.

Thanks for coming.

Thanks for the work you've been doing and gathering all of the additional um support of the community, downhill partnership, etc.

I would love it if you would speak a little bit.

Uh we just heard mention of the downtown rotary.

A little bit about Rotary's purpose and um mission and how how you're very it's a very service-oriented organization.

And if you could speak a little bit more to a Rotary International's um focus on on helping community.

Well, we have um seven pillars of what Rotary focuses on.

And for Rotary National, probably what's most people are most aware of is our work to end polio worldwide.

So Rotary is a the big driver behind doing that.

But one of our seven pillars is uh economic and community development, which is why a project like this fits in with Rotary's uh mission.

There are excuse me.

There are thousands of rotary parks around the world at Rotary kind of has done parks historically.

But our benevolent city father was a parks guy.

And he gave us Acacia LMO, Antlers, Monument Valley, Memorial, Palmer Park.

He took all the good park spots.

So we had to do a different kind of project.

And uh one of my board members let me know that Solida Rotary built an amphitheater for their city park, and it's been very successful.

Great, thank you.

Well, as you know, I and I'll say it here publicly, I'm very supportive and will do whatever I can to uh to advance the work that you're doing.

Thank you, Nancy.

Thank you.

That's very encouraging, and it's um very exciting for our downtown.

Okay.

For the sake of time, because we do have a scheduled uh meeting at 12 o'clock.

I don't believe we're gonna get through the other items in 15 minutes with presentations and questions.

So we're going to recess for lunch, and we will start.

Will the clerk please read item six C into the record.

Cultural Office of the Pives Week Region Copper 2025 Urin Lodgers, an auto rental tax contract update to City Council.

Good afternoon, Angela.

And just to be aware, we have two council members online.

We have Councilman Williams and Councilman Rainey.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, President Crow Iverson.

Hello, City Council members and uh Councilman Casey.

Pleasure to meet you.

Uh I'm Angela Seals.

I'm the executive director of the Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region.

We're the local arts agency that serves the city of Colorado Springs, as well as El Paso County and Teller County.

We are an independent nonprofit that works closely with partners all across the region to support our creative sector.

We offer centralized services, gatherings, and strategic programs to make creative workers and organizations stronger together and more positively impactful for our Pikes Peak region.

You can learn more about us at CulturalOffice.org.

But I know many of you know us and we appreciate working with you throughout the year on our shared goals.

There are over 550 arts, culture, and entertainment groups across our service area.

80% of them are in the city of Colorado Springs.

So that's where we deeply overlap with your service area and with your constituents, all of whom touch the creative economy in some way.

The cultural offices uh programs uh include four pillars leadership and advocacy as the regional local arts agency, and also cultural promotion and tourism, creative economy, and arts education.

As you see us indicating here, our LART contract for services really focuses on two areas the cultural promotion and tourism program and the creative economy program.

Um but our work is much more comprehensive than that as an arts agency.

I also want to acknowledge that there were about five local arts organization leaders who were here earlier today in support of their cultural office.

I want to thank them for coming out and for their support.

Our LART contract uh with the city uh is something that we take very seriously as and our good stewards of.

We have always met or exceeded the expectations of that contract since it began in 2017.

So this is our ninth year.

Our KPIs are comprehensive, ensuring that we're a strong cultural office for the city.

Um but in response to LART's clarifying goals in the past few years and input from city council, we have really focused where we're putting that investment uh of the contract into cultural tourism development and expanded our what had been called our peak radar program into a cultural promotion and tourism program.

It's much more uh far-reaching.

The cultural office receives 472,000 dollars annually.

That was our amount in 2025 for fulfilling this contract.

And in response, that contract has 16 required KPIs and 11 additional initiatives to fulfill our shared goals with you of advancing tourism and economic development.

We provide a full report to the mayor's office that really goes over all of those KPIs as well as our financial statements.

So those are all on record, and you are welcome to review them through the mayor's office.

Today, with this few minutes, I'm going to focus on tourists attracted and events supported.

So in our presentation today, we really want to hit what I know you all are very focused on, and that is how are those LART dollars advancing the ordinance.

The Cultural Office has been building cultural tourism since we were founded in 2006.

Our flagship program, PeakRadar.com has been the arts and entertainment website for the region since it launched in 2007.

In 2023, as I mentioned, we expanded that into a much more comprehensive program vertical cultural promotion and tourism, led by Jonathan Tomen, who's here with us today.

And Peak Radar continues to remain the arts and cultural website for the region.

We weave it into so many different partnerships and projects all across the region that it is truly infrastructure for local arts and entertainment.

It includes event information and listings, but also guides to what you can do on the weekends, tourism guides, directories, and uh opportunities board for the sector.

So it really is a comprehensive service that we offer.

It's like a marketing department for the creative community.

We offer free marketing services to over a thousand organizations since it launched.

And in 2025, Peak Radar supported 2,533 local events.

It's not just the website, it's also the social media platforms, regular weekly e-blasts, public relations, and regular spots on local media.

In our KPIs here, we're sharing not only the usage of Peak Radar, but we wanted to call out for City Council really how many tourists are being served by this program.

Almost 200,000 tourists actively used Peak Radar in 2025.

Those are direct website users.

They're also people who are getting the weekly e-blast to plan their trips.

And we're working closely with partners like Visit Colorado Springs, Downtown, Colorado Springs.com, Manitou Springs is a new partner, Manitou Springs Chamber and Visitor Center, Pikes Peak Region Attractions, and ArtsOctober.com.

All those websites pull live feeds to their site.

So Peak Radar is not duplicating a service, it is providing the service to all of these other regional sites.

You'll see that in 2025, 74% of users were tourists to the Pikes Peak region.

And 98% of them say that the site is helping them connect to local arts and culture and entertainment.

86% attended an event that they would not have attended if not for our services.

And 95% of them are interacting with this monthly.

And that they are buying tickets.

Those tourism users using a standard formula for how many hotel room nights they might be purchasing 5,000 hotel room nights from people who are using PeakRadar.com that frequently and with that efficacy.

We're also running a marketing campaign that highlights our cultural destination as a place where you can find it all, really focuses on how diverse our offerings are in the Pikes Peak region.

We run that marketing campaign both locally and out of market across print, digital, radio, television, and social media.

In 2025, we also ran an ad in the Texas and Southwest USA Today Travel publication.

So we have a great feature in there alongside some of our other cultural attractions.

That campaign had 14 million impressions in 2025.

In addition, we've been pitching stories.

We want to increase the positive press about our local cultural destination.

And it's been going really well.

This is the second year.

We were able to land 23 local media pieces and 26 out-of-market media pieces through this pitching that we're doing now.

And those are huge increases over our first year last year.

So it's been going really well developing those press relationships.

And this is how you develop a reputation as a place that people want to visit for arts and entertainment.

In addition, you know, this isn't just a marketing project.

Building a destination is about long-term development.

So some of these initiatives I'm going to highlight in the next couple slides are doing just that.

We're proud to be a founding partner and sponsor of Art at COS at Colorado Springs Airport in close partnership with Airport, Cottonwood Center for the Arts, and Downtown Creative District.

I know some of you have been uh we're at the first uh reception opening.

Thank you, Councilman Donaldson and Councilman's Henjam and Gold for coming to that reception when it first opened.

Uh the call is out for the second exhibit.

That's a really fantastic way of activating the airport, making sure it looks like a real cultural destination where people live, and highlights uh what an exciting place this is, not only to tourists but to local residents.

We also hosted a creative sector summit in June that included an arts and destination stewardship panel and arts marketing mixers throughout the year.

So we're doing professional development for our sector to become better marketers themselves and tell stronger stories to pull tourists to become part of our audiences.

Peak Radar is also the host site for everything happening in the Pikes Peak region for America 250, Colorado 150.

Uh we send weekly event recommendations to Pikes Peak Lodging Association and have many other integrations with our local tourism and hospitality community.

Arts month is every October.

It's a big celebration.

And it's also a big campaign where we raise awareness for the arts in the Pikes Peak region.

In 2025, we reached 4.6 million people with this campaign.

We really centered local voices this year.

We're trying to drive, particularly drive economic impact through a partnership with Visit COS, uh, where we use the first arts passport using Bandwango, and people uh had 441 signups and 114 check-ins at 51 creative locations.

That was a really great partnership.

And it's a good example of how our tourism sector entities, our tourism sector experts that are contracted through LART.

We're working together to support each other and uh to advance the goals in a way that that wouldn't be possible if we didn't have this collaborative culture between us.

Uh, we also publish a local arts guide every October with a Gazette that's part of Arts Month.

Uh and we appreciate the Arts Month proclamations from Colorado Springs City Council and other elected leaders around the region.

You can learn more about ArtsOctober at ArtsOctober.com.

You know, cultural tourism and developing the cultural destination isn't a new idea.

It's something that cities are doing all over the country.

And it is part of our current cultural plan, Arts Vision 2030.

And it's working.

Uh in visit Colorado Springs recent Longwoods International Research.

They show that our Pikes Peak region visitors participate in cultural activities and entertainment at rates well above the national norms.

48% of them are in participating in local arts and culture, 64% in local entertainment.

We're proud of that success, and we want to support and increase it.

We have something good going here, and long-term investment is how we keep building.

So that is a quick report on our 2025 uh progress.

I hope that you'll take a look at the full report through the mayor's office if you have questions.

And I'm also happy to entertain some right now.

I don't see any questions at this time, Angela, but I did notice the artwork in downstairs, and it's it's very nice.

Thank you for helping us with that.

Yeah, it's that's part of our wraparound cultural services, um, providing the local art curation in this building and also the city admin building.

We hope we'll inspire our civil servants to remember that they're part of a creative place.

Yeah, there's a lot of people in and out of that room for different boards and it's true.

I think you know, URA holds boards meetings, so a lot of people, citizens see it.

So thank you for doing that.

But at this time I don't see any questions, but we do appreciate the update.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

Moving on to item six D.

Will the clerk please read item 60 into the record?

Colorado Spring Sports Board 2025 Urin LART contract city.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Council.

My name is Davis Tutt.

I am the senior director of Sports Tourism and Olympic Engagement for the Color Springs Sports Corporation.

Thank you so much as always for the opportunity to uh present to you all what uh Megan just provided and then what uh is going around as our 2025 uh KPI report as a tourism sector entity, as well as the Sports Corp 2025 annual report.

Um Councilmember Casey, very nice to meet you.

Look forward to working with you uh over the next uh little bit.

Um we'll we'll get jump right into it.

We good right here on this one.

I'll wait till you get to full screen.

Well, I will jump in regardless.

So to what we're just gonna chat with you all today, um, do a very quick sports corp uh review, uh primarily for Councilmember Casey, just to uh make sure he's up to date on uh who we are and what we do, uh, and then take you through our 2025 uh impact with some uh some great tourism uh information.

So um jumping into it, uh you know, most of you that are here and online know the sports corp.

Our mission is to inspire and advance Car Springs, Olympic City USA through sport and community events.

And so we do that through uh our four organizational pillars.

One being the Olympic Paralympic movement, second being sports tourism, which is mostly what we will discuss today, uh, and then event management and community sports programming.

Most of you on council probably know us for the events that we host annually, um, which you can see right here.

The partner events are the events that we put on uh with various partners.

Signature events are those that we own and operate wholly.

And one thing uh I would like to call out is you know, our contract with the city is specifically around sports tourism and bringing events to Collar Springs with the idea of obviously tourism, bringing more people to uh spend their money here and uh stay in our hotels and contribute to the local economy.

One way that uh sports commissions, which is what we are, do this is by hosting their own events.

And so you see the events that we we have on the screen right there.

These are all events that bring hundreds of thousands, if not, you know, I guess hundreds of thousands of people to Color Springs every year.

We um uh kind of an industry interesting uh side note is we recently um with a number of partners uh are going to be rolling out a new software called Placer AI.

And Placer allows us to um, especially in the event world, figure out exactly the number of people that are coming to your events using cell phone data.

It's all anonymous cell phone data, but then figure out exactly where they're going after uh their events.

And so uh we just wanted to call it like an interesting one, which is that Labor Day liftoff in 2025.

We originally estimated 205,000 people came through Labor Day liftoff.

It's actually 238,000 people in 2025 came through Labor Day liftoff using that cell phone data.

Um individuals that go through Memorial Park every year is about 518,000 individuals go.

So that the number of individual people that go through Memorial Park, half almost half of that comes during the two and a half days of Labor Day liftoff.

So just kind of brings a little bit to light of you know the quantity of people that show up at a lot of our internal events, and that's a whole separate thing of what uh from our uh our our LART um uh what we do as a tourism sector entity.

And so we would actually suggest we'd love to chat with you and do a lunch and learn sometime to take counsel through this software that we have because it's pretty interesting just to see what what we we can now have and offer to you all when you have questions about you know attendance at events uh around town.

Uh just real quickly again, um, the the pillars outside of our uh our um event management.

Uh we work significantly with the Olympic and Paralympic movement.

Uh our organization was originally established to move the USOC from New York City to College Springs in 1979.

And then we continue that today through uh NGB relocations or retention bids, um, working with NGBs to host their events here in Collar Springs.

We provide a number of different resources that assist the NGBs, whether it's promotion, whether it's office space, shared services, you name it.

And then on the sports tourism side, um, we represent the city at uh a number of different functions around the country.

These are conferences such as sports ETA teams and ACEs, which these are all they bring cities and events rights holders together.

Uh we uh host the sports facility database, which is the database of all sports facilities in Collar Springs.

Uh last year for the first time we put on the Pikes Peak Sports Economy report, which quantified the sports economy for the city of Color Springs for the first time, and I'll touch on that a little bit as well.

We really served to uh be the conduit for all things sport uh in the city of Color Springs.

So just a little reminder of our KPIs that uh we are judged on in that white document, the one that doesn't look as pretty, it's just a um, but the the other one uh goes through in great detail all the different KPIs and how we met them in 2025.

So we uh are required to put on special community events, there's event promotion and management, obviously fiscal responsibility and management, community development, and then ongoing advis advocacy.

And so we in 2025 uh met these goals through a number of different events that we worked to bring to Collar Springs, all with the aim of increasing tourism throughout the city.

So just a highlight of some of the major events.

We try to work with our local NGBs as much as possible.

Just a reminder that 25 NGBs are based here in Collar Springs.

The next closest city is Indianapolis with three.

And so the fact that we have U.S.

figure skating, uh USA weightlifting, USA basketball in our backyard, they want to host their events and their championships here.

And so we uh we make that happen.

So you see that US figure skating hosted one of their largest championships in the summer USA weightlifting um hosted their national championships at Robeson Arena as a City for Champions project.

We always uh push that.

Many of you are probably at the US Senior Open.

Um, and then getting into the fall, uh, we finished off the end of the year with a NCAA championship being the Division II men's and women's soccer national championships at Wagner Field.

I'll call it the Department of Defense Warrior Games because this is the first time that the now Department of War Warrior Games uh were hosted in Collar Springs since 2018.

And this uh in the middle of summer was uh probably about 2,500 people for 10 straight days.

Almost all of them were from out of out of town.

Um so that kind of uh guarantee on hotels, especially downtown hotels was was something that um really uh added significantly back to the LARC coffers.

It's small screen, but this is just an idea of all the events that we either brought to Color Springs through a bid event or we uh assisted uh with um really their their out of city uh getting people to come here.

So you'll see a lot of different types of events that are youth sports events, NGB events.

Uh you'll see a lot of Chassa, Color High School State uh Athletics Association championships.

We continue to grow our portfolio of Chassa State Championships because even though they're Colorado, people are traveling from all around the state.

And so when you get Durango coming in for hockey, they're not coming in for a day.

So I'd be happy to chat through any of these at any other time.

So just doing the recap of 2025.

Um one thing you'll hear uh across the nation is that tourism was was down in 2025, but that's really general tourism was um had a slight decline.

Obviously, our LART uh return was I think down 1.5% in 2025.

But national trends continue to show that no matter what the economic uncertainty is, parents will almost always travel for their children's sport.

And so we absolutely saw that here in Color Springs.

And so we we do believe in the quality of events that we bid for and we bring here versus just pure quantity because we want the to bring the number of the events that are gonna bring the greatest return when it comes to visitors and hotel room nights.

So even though in 2025 we uh had a 12% decrease in athletes, we significantly made up for that in the number of spectators and then greatly made up for that in the number uh of hotel room nights that were generated.

A significant portion of the hotel room nights generated through sports tourism that really came from those key events like uh Department of Defense Warrior Games, where we specifically went after it.

That is, we knew they were gonna be here in peak season for 10 straight nights with a significant number of people.

And so uh we're keeping uh those numbers up uh through those the highlighting of those events.

One thing I did mention is that in 2025, uh our internal uh event that we created was the Pikes Peak Sports Economy Report.

And this was a partnership with the UCCS College of Business.

Obviously, they do economic modeling.

That is not what we do.

So we really wanted to quantify what is the impact of the sports economy in Collar Springs.

And so we'd be happy to send you a link.

It's a very large digital document.

But it uh brought to light that the sports economy contributes approximately 280 million dollars annually to put into the Pikespeak region, and sports corporation itself contributes more than 100 million dollars in annual economic activity through the events that we own and operate.

Obviously, that brings uh increased overnight stays, great media exposure when you're bringing events from all around the country, and then also continues to strengthen our name as Olympic City USA.

So, enough about events.

Uh, just wanted to highlight two uh major projects uh that we were working on significantly last year with many other uh individuals within the city of Color Springs because part of our KPIs aren't just bring events to Color Springs, but it's continue to build the sports ecosystem throughout the city.

And so one of those at the Rocky Mountain Sports Ranch, we worked uh significantly over the last year and a half, and particularly in 2025 to get all the potential future users in the room for this major project that uh hopefully uh the developers will be interested in chatting with you all more about uh in the near future.

And then we heard it loud and clear that when the vibes closed down, people at Color Springs really miss professional baseball.

And so we've been working uh very diligently with a number of individuals, um, particularly one group who is interested in bringing uh professional baseball back to Color Springs.

And so uh we are excited to hopefully share some more about that um during our mid year presentation to you all, probably in uh July or August.

So just looking ahead to 2026, we are gonna continue to expand, particularly on our Olympic front.

We obviously had the 2026 Olympics here, so um we hosted the winter downtown winterfest um in conjunction with the US OPC and a number of NGBs.

Um, but then we also want to continue to grow on uh Paralympic sport offers.

Paralympic sport is uh seeing um a significant growth in the United States, whether it's in goal ball, whether it's in wheelchair basketball, and we want to make sure that Color Springs not only is a great Olympic city, but it's also a great Paralympic city.

So you can see on some of these 2025 events, National Wheelchair Basketball Association just yesterday, they finished their women's and military national championships here in Color Springs.

And then U.S.

Association of Blind Athletes towards the end of the year will be hosting their goalball national championships in conjunction with the uh Color School for the Deaf and Blind.

One that I will call out that is uh we're particularly excited about is USA Pickleball, and they will be hosting their inaugural wheelchair national championships.

USA Pickleball is the governing body for pickleball in the United States, and they've never had a wheelchair national championships.

They loved the golden ticket event that was here last year so much that they're gonna create an entirely new event and trial it here in Color Springs.

So uh we look forward to hosting them uh in June uh just coming up in a couple months.

And then I mentioned we're continuing to grow the number of state championships.

Uh in the in the fall, we had uh about six state championships, six state championships when you include boys and girls, and then um, or in the spring, sorry, and then we'll continue a strong fall with the cross-country state championships and then state boys and girls soccer.

Uh with boys and girls soccer, that is uh take does take place at Widener Field as a City for Champions project.

That is something where we have got Chasta to commit to a three year partnership with that for both boys and girls, semifinals and finals.

We're very close to getting the state uh hockey championships of all levels, semifinals and finals at Robeson Arena, so that we do have a marquee state championship at both of the city for champions projects.

With that, I will just end with this is the sports corps internal uh calendar of events.

I know many of you uh come out to a lot of our events.

Uh Councilmember Casey, we look forward to welcome you uh at any events, whether it's Labor Day lift off, Pike Speak Air Show, Cycle to the Summit if anybody wants to do a bike race up, maybe Megan will race you up to the top.

And then we end the year with Pike Speak Sports Economy Report.

Uh, and we are excited to bring this offer.

2026 will be a busy year for all of our internal events and the events that we're bringing here to Color Springs.

Councilmember Careerson, that is it.

Councilman Lane Weber.

Hey, thanks for coming.

And um, thanks for all you do.

I mean, this is a big part of tourism that you know, I think for years, uh Colorado Springs has just not um fully leaned into to some extent.

And I think really over the last well, I wouldn't say that necessarily.

I I would say about 10 years ago.

I think we kind of got going.

And then COVID probably set us back a little bit, and then we're kind of getting going again.

Um I think it all started with the whole Olympic City brand.

And that's part of what you guys are really about, really defending that brand and really upholding that whole piece.

How's that going?

I mean, you guys had kind of a tough year this year.

We've lost a couple of uh of events, but and then you've got like they're leaving, right?

I mean, there was that whole thing.

How did you do with that?

I mean, I think we yeah, we took it head on.

Um I think we had to recognize at the very beginning, and Megan can come up here and speak to this as well.

But you know, we had to recognize where we were and be honest with a lot of the NGBs that were based here in Color Springs, they really didn't feel supported.

Um, and we wanted to change that.

And so um I do appreciate uh city administration's assistance.

They took it head on as well.

Uh I think they took it as hey, we've we need to, as the city, as the sports corp, as a visit COS, we all need to level up to make sure that these organizations feel supported uh by their city.

And so there's now quarterly meetings that the city administration uh has with the NGBs that are based here in Color Springs.

Um, and I would say, like if you asked any of the NGBs three years ago, do you feel supported by your city?

They probably they would have said no.

I heard it loud and clear at almost every conference that I went to.

Color Springs now across the board, you ask other CVBs, other sports commissions.

No other uh city in the country hosts more than two NGB national championships.

We have an internal goal that we want to host at least five every year.

And just by hosting those events, we're proving to the NGBs that they we, you know, we do support them in what you know in what they do.

I'll add one little thing too.

You know, we're constantly working on retention of NGBs.

Every NGB is different.

Some want office space, some just want event support.

Um, you know, while we uh had lost uh one NGB in USA Pentathlon, we gained uh significant with US Association of Blind Athletes right afterwards.

They moved their entire operations, all their gold ball residency program and their blind soccer program from Indiana to Collar Springs.

So while we lost about five resident athletes uh from pentathlon, we gained about 20 athletes from gold ball and uh in blind soccer.

So and that's all I was gonna reiterate um is that rumor mill really was sort of a rumor to a degree in in my tenure.

Well, it was there was the macros, so it in my tenure in five years, um, we have lost one NGB and it is USA pentathlon with one employee.

So there hasn't been any other of the NGBs actual movement, but it is our job and we take it very seriously for retention.

But I just wanted to clarify that as well.

Well, and the other piece I just kind of wanted to point out that um we as a city haven't really invested in this in terms of infrastructure.

I mean, to be quite honest, in a lot of different areas, whether it's the arts, whether it's the outdoors, whatever it might be, we think that we have, but the truth of the matter is other communities are kicking our ass.

I mean, they're just doing far superior because we kind of just rest that, hey, we have Pikes Peak.

And we really need better facilities.

And that's really restricted kind of what we can offer to some of these.

I mean, when when I see tournaments going to Kansas all the time, I have to ask the question, why?

And it's really because of infrastructure.

And so I'd like you to kind of speak to that a little bit.

What if how are you guys addressing that?

What's your plans?

What what's your hopes?

What's your goals?

You know, how do we get there?

How do we how do we world class?

Sure, I can start with that.

You're completely right.

Um, without the venues, it's really hard to bid on large scale events.

We don't have basketball courts, volleyball courts, baseball fields to bring in some of those really large youth tournaments.

So we are doing what we can with the assets that we have.

We're really smart not to oversell our city and our assets.

We're not gonna go bid on this national basketball tournament and put them at 12 different high schools throughout Colorado Springs.

Um, but with that, we are working hand in hand in hopefully the development of the Rocky Mountain Sports Ranch, which is a massive indoor outdoor sports complex that we have been working on strategically for about two years now that would the other interesting piece of it that Davis mentioned when we brought it up together last year, all the potential users is we don't just want to make it cookie cutter.

We really want to look at some of the needs of some of the local nationally, national governing bodies that are here, whether that be um potential opportunities to bring other NGBs here, if it's USA curling or different assets that we can add along to this indoor outdoor sports complex to serve our own community, to serve sports tourism, and then to try to build on some of these national championships that we're having here with the national governing bodies.

And I'll just add one thing too.

You know, one of the ways that to your to use your quote, other cities are kicking our butt, uh, or in other states are kicking our buttons is Colorado does not have a state level sports commission.

Uh coming out of the the 2002 Olympics, the Utah Sports Commission was created.

Over half the sit the states around the country have state-level sports commissions that offer financial opportunities, whether it's through general fund or it's through taxing that support events and infrastructure throughout their entire state.

Colorado doesn't have one.

We are working, there's a group of us um with Denver, Color Springs, Fort Collins, and Grand Junction actually, uh, that are working towards uh with uh the Oedit office in the in the state um uh as part of the state to get the get this started because Colorado as a state is definitely not thought of as a top-tier sports tourism business uh state because of this.

Um and I think we have to be creative.

You know, uh the the a lot of the NGBs are engaging with the state of North Carolina, the state of North Carolina when they pass their uh sports betting, sports betting revenues in the state of North Carolina go back to attracting amateur sporting events within the state.

In Colorado, they go to water water water, which is something that North Carolina doesn't really have to deal with.

But they're they their legislators have gotten creative with the ways that they fund.

And the state of North Carolina has realized that they want to go after things uh like NGB championships, like NCAA championships.

And so they devote their sports betting revenue to allow that.

So in Colorado, we're we're creating the groundwork to start having the conversation at the state level of if we do want some sort of funding mechanism, with we know it's not going to come from the general fund.

We probably don't want it to come from a tax increase.

What are ways that the uh we can bring in the professional sports team owners that uh can make it you know make it creative?

Uh in the state of Florida, the license plates for you know the Miami Dolphins or the the hurricanes, the money that you pay for a license plate goes back to support the sport Florida Florida Sports Foundation to attract events to come to the state of Florida.

Well, I just want to say thanks again.

Uh, you guys do a lot with a little, um, as we do with LART.

LART is a little compared to what many other regions have really invested in.

And tourism really produces um quite a return on investment.

I mean, upwards of 25% of our sales tax is paid through tourism.

So someone else pays the bill for our roads, our police, and all the rest of that.

So we we need to understand the value of this, and we need to understand that we're just not this isolated piece.

And hopefully we don't be have a Kodak moment, you know, where you know, other communities just kind of like steal what we have.

I mean, even LA said we're not you're not Olympic City.

We are because we host it, right?

And and so I mean, we keep having this kind of like poll, and to some extent, they're they're right.

We don't really have the sports economy that we could have.

But we we we need to look at, you know, how do we invest in this and how do we kind of look in it as a business mindset, you know, going forward.

So thanks again.

Councilman Donaldson.

Yeah, thanks, Ben President.

Um I just I want to say thank you to you both for what you're doing for uh to advance uh Colorado Springs in this area.

I think it's uh it's really you know, when our founding father put the city here, General Palmer, you know, it was the focus was culture and health.

And really, what you're focusing on with these events is uh the health side of that.

And I think you're doing it the right way with uh kind of leveraging the different things we have here, including the military, the the regional air show, the uh the military games.

Um and these are we kind of have three legs we for our stool here in the military is one of them.

And so we're not the biggest uh city in America, but I think we have some of the you know most spectacular events, and uh thank you for doing that.

Military basketball association is having their national championships at the uh academy in June.

So we'll send you the information about it.

Perfect.

I see no other questions.

I do think that curling should come.

I think that the high altitude training, because it's so fiscally intense, would be very good for them.

Do you want to be on my curling team?

Do you want me to do can I sweep?

I'll be the pusher, you can be the sweeper deal.

Yeah, I can do the splits.

That might work.

Um, I see no other questions.

Thank you so much.

We do appreciate your quarterly update as usual.

Um we'll see you in June or August.

Moving on to item 7A.

Will the clerk please read item 7A into the record?

Agenda planner review.

Do we have any changes to the agenda planner review?

Seeing none, move on to items 8A.

Will the clerk please read item 8A into the record?

A resolution of the city of Colorado Springs consenting to the dissolution of the Evergreen Ridge Metro District.

Good afternoon, Kevin.

Good afternoon, council.

Kevin Walker, planning director.

Um, today we're gonna talk about the Evergreen Ridge Metropolitan District, who has requested uh dissolution.

So I'll run through this slide very quick, south of Evergreen Cemetery adjacent to 26th Street, and it's located in district number three.

Um, this is the map of the um of the district itself was created in 2023, so not very long ago.

The landowner is the developer, so there's only one landowner at the moment.

No debt has been issued, no financial obligations have been incurred, uh, and only an ONM mill levy has been certified so far.

It's about 20 acres in total, about 10 acres is in a preservation area.

That's the large area to the uh left there.

Uh about 138 townhome units that have been um at least partially constructed, and the common areas are all owned by uh the developer, and the developer is going to construct all of the previous, all of the improvements that were previously proposed for in the uh metro district.

So pursuant to state statute, you can dissolve without an election uh so long as this is wholly within the city, which it is, holds no debt and retains no financial obligations, which we have confirmed, must not own any assets, which we've also confirmed, and must not be obligated to maintain any public improvements.

Okay.

Uh in your materials, we have the council resolution, uh cover memo from the district, a resolution of the board of directors, and a certified financial statement.

So relatively straightforward.

Council McDonaldson.

Yep, thank you, Madam President.

Kevin, in just plain English, uh the developer decided they don't need a metro district, he'll just pay for it directly and self.

Yeah.

That that's clearly what the decision hasn't issued any debt.

So it's kind of uh before it even starts, we'll just reverse.

Yep, and they're gonna manage all of their common areas through an HOA.

Okay, thank you.

Are you asking this to be on consent?

Boy, I would sure like for this to be on consent.

Can I have thumbs up?

Okay, well, the four of us and two online.

I see no dissent.

Great.

Thank you.

Moving on to item eight.

Will the clerk please read item eight be into the record?

And Nord submitting Article 5, administration of enforcement of chapter 7, unified development code of the city of Colorado Springs 2001 is submitted pertaining to procedural process.

Good afternoon, Dan.

Good morning, uh, Madam President, uh, council members.

Uh today we have just an update on an item that will be brought before you later this month, uh, which are uh a series of updates within Article 5 of the Unified Development Code.

Um the specific subsections within this uh this chapter of the city code that we're looking at uh revolve largely around specific application types.

Um some of these issues were brought to our attention based on recent applications, uh, where we had kind of a sideways kind of decision making process that occurred because of the language that exists today in code.

Uh, one of those items you recently just heard on appeal uh about two weeks ago.

Um, but for that, uh for the purposes of trying to clean that up, um, we have drafted an ordinance that ran through planning commission uh last month.

Um this is somewhat as a side effort uh to the broader uh scrub of the UDC that was kicked off by our department last year, uh, which you will be seeing uh a series of phase one, phase two kind of big packaged uh updates to the code uh for you all to consider.

Um but really what we we kind of couched this effort under is this is more or less a house cleaning because as always, when you when you redo 300, 400 pages of code, inevitably you're gonna miss something, or you're gonna have something written and it wasn't intended to be written that way or interpreted that way.

So we're doing these independent scrubs when we do see the need for that.

Um these are the seven uh application kind of areas where we touched on to provide clarity uh of information and process.

Uh and I'm just gonna walk through each of these individually.

Um and I should just note this is a refinement to the presentation in your packet.

I added some additional information just to give some clarity for the discussion today, and certainly can elaborate further when this comes to hearing later this month.

So under the appeal section, really what we're doing is we're reinforcing uh the intent of the language under appeals, which is that any other lesser decision my decision-making body of council, think of planning commission, uh the form-based code historic preservation board, they make recommendations to you.

You are the decision maker, they make recommendations to you.

Uh so we're just kind of reinforcing that uh here.

And and the intent of putting it here is to explain uh more clearly to those uh parties or individuals that may agree be aggrieved through a decision making process under the UDC, uh, where the action or recommendation of that lesser body is not appealable.

Ultimately, it still has a final decision that comes to you uh for action.

Uh, of course, in a situation where the the historic preservation board renders a decision, that decision is still appealable to this body.

Um, but again, it just makes sure that any recommendation is not.

Um Council McDonaldson.

And nothing had been that hadn't happened, right?

It has not.

Yeah, it happened under prior code.

It really can't happen.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We've we've heard it under prior chapter seven.

Uh, it was frequently occurred where we would have an appeal of an item that had not yet actually finished out its decision-making process.

Um, and in conversations with the city attorney's office, we've heard, I'm gonna say conjecture or kind of basis of appellants saying that they should be able to appeal a recommendation, but code is clear that that is not the case.

We're just adding further clarity of that today.

Does it does it take away any ability of a citizen to um appeal okay?

That's what that's the way I read it.

Thanks.

Nope.

All of the the standing procedures and protocols are still the same.

Uh jumping ahead here now to development plans.

Um, what we have kind of laid out in this instance is we we uh ran into a situation where there's conflicting provisions of code that say a develop or a conditional use can run independent and have a decision make decision rendered by planning commission, whereas a development plan stays at administrative level, but then the kind of uh preemptive applicability clause says that they have to run at the same time and they have to be decided on, still by their respective separate paths of decision at the same time.

Uh, and so to kind of add clarity of intent, uh we've noted that they um, you know, in the case of a conditional use, uh, an applicant can seek that approval through planning commission without having a development plan in the packet for that body to sit to consider.

We certainly, as staff still have the ability, if there's one in review to elevate it to that body to review.

Um, but really it firms up the intent of the code, which is to create a lower point of entry for conditional uses uh and some other applications.

Well, I should say this one is specific to conditional uses, but it it reinforces what we do on other applications where um the applicant can seek that conditional use as a use approved in a zone with potentially conditions applied to it, and then seek a development plan approval administratively through staff's decision-making process.

Um, and because again, we had kind of a conflict in or a potential kind of conflict between the applicability kind of introductory statement and one of the subsections, uh, we identified again reinforcing the referral capability of staff or of manager to elevate that development plan up.

I'll jump ahead then.

Um I lumped all these together because the changes in administrative adjustment, design standards adjustment, non-use variances, and very in use variances are largely all the same in that first and foremost, um, the intent of the UDC from a permissive regulating perspective uh was intended to allow these application types as a as a potential remedy for a property owner, a developer, a builder to seek remedy of a dimensional standard that doesn't work for their project.

Um the the UDC was written, it excluded use specific dimensional standards.

Um not that you guys have heard any actions on these previously, but I'll use as an example.

Today in code, there's a 250-foot separation requirement for gas stations from residential uses.

Um with the language that's in code today, there's no way to vary that standard at all.

It's not a permissible ask to seek.

Um, what we have simply done with the first bullet is add in uh a section reference to refer to 73 7.3.3, which are use specific standards, to say if the project, you know, for whatever reason there's a market demand uh in a location, the previous development or land use patterns don't support that 250 foot buffer, the developer could seek remedy to vary that standard um and by the various applications that are noted here.

Okay.

Um the other piece is um in the second bullet is is reaffirming that the applications again from a uh vantage point of low entry to consideration, because think of it when these developers are coming in on a project and they're spending 30, 50, 100,000 of dollars in design and engineering to get these projects on paper to work.

Um sometimes it's the littlest detail of a setback of a certain dimensional standard that can throw the whole project off and and not make it work from a code perspective.

What we have identified in the second bullet is reaffirming language in the ordinance that says these application types and in this section here can be sought independent of a development plan.

So if they want to try to ask for a dimensional relief, whether that's a 15% or a non-use variance to planning commission or so forth, um, they can do that before they spend those thousands and thousands of dollars on design.

Um now, granted, they may still have to do some of that to be able to justify their their request, but uh an action on these applications can be independent of the the overarching development plan that would guide development of the site.

Uh and then lastly, the the third bullet, uh again, which is largely the same with all the various application types is this was an omission uh from chapter seven to the UDC, where for these various applications, we didn't have clear language about their expiration.

Because again, the UDC when it was written had some language that and that contemplated or anticipated these applications to come in concurrent concurrently with a development plan, but oftentimes we don't see them with a development plan.

And so what we've added in here is some post-decision language that kind of uh sets forth expiration periods for these applications.

Um it is largely a mirror of what was in chapter seven uh with some updated language to kind of align with the current kind of thought process and language approach within the UDC.

So again, we're we're looking at setting a one-year expiration window if it is an independent ask uh without that development plan.

Uh and andor uh with a building permit um that supports that that proposed construction.

Because think about it, you could have a residential home where a homeowner wants to build an addition on their house.

Um that addition encroaches into a setback, they need to have an administrative adjustment, but a single family home is exempt from having to do a development plan.

This avenue, uh, this clarity of post decision action allows that homeowner to proceed with that uh maybe administrative adjustment, a 15% reduction of a setback as an example.

Um, but then sets to say that sets the stage that if they get that approval administratively, they have to obtain their building permit within one year.

Uh, because if they don't get that building permit in one year, that approval is null and void.

Um, so it kind of sets the stage for that vesting component.

Um next one, zone map amendments.

Uh, as I kind of uh alluded to in the introduction, this is the section of code that we're changing uh to reflect the fact that the intent of the UDC, which is that uh planning commission decisions, all decisions are recommendation as it relates to a zone map amendment.

Um today, if uh a property owner, a developer seeks to see seeks to obtain a zone map amendment for their parcel and it is denied by planning commission, they have to appeal.

Uh, and that appeal would come to this body and now changes the threshold for decision.

Because not only are you looking at the zone change zone map amendment criteria, you're also looking at the appeal criteria uh in deliberation on that action, as opposed to taking the recommendation of planning commission as as was intended under the UDC is a recommendation, and you as the city council uh have that final decision making of whether that zone map amendment is is truly a benefit to the community.

Okay.

Uh and that's it.

So, any questions?

Councilman Donaldson.

Yeah, thanks, Ben President.

You know, this uh the paper version of this wasn't in my packet.

I got two of the preceding items and zero of this item, no big deal.

But so I hadn't had a chance to read, I can show you it in the recycle bin.

And uh so I hadn't read this yet.

Just one um practical example here.

There was a neighbor of mine who wanted to build a detached garage on his property, and it was going to be into the uh setbacks.

And so I believe, like in this one example you gave, yep, he had to actually have it basically designed and everything, and then request the variance, or if that's the proper term for uh, is it?

Uh it depends what they would be asking for, but you would to have this in uh stuck into the uh setback.

And so you had to neighbors found out and everybody likes Bob and they all supported Bob and Bob got his garage built, now he does tile work in there and it's great.

Um but what you're saying here is that one of these changes would allow that homeowner to simply request the uh variance or the uh permission to build into the setback without actually having the plan uh drawn up.

No, and I do apologize if that how is how it came across.

Yeah, so with with the here, I'm gonna oops, I'm gonna jump back here to oops, went too far.

So under these four different applications, these are adjustments and variances, this section.

So there's a whole bunch of uses that today in code are exempted from getting a development plan.

Single family home is one of those use types or or development types that's exempt from a development plan.

Um in a larger project where, say uh a developer was building a subdivision, a residential subdivision, and in order to make that work under the zoning, they needed to reduce those setbacks to fit their product on those specific lots.

They can seek that uh adjustment to that without having the development plan fully designed and fully laid out and through administrative reviews to see whether it's something that at a staff level, or in many cases, these have occurred when planning commission is is reviewing it through a non-use variance because they are the decision-making body for non-use variances.

Um but it would allow them to seek that relief before they spend tens of thousands of dollars on a full-blown development plan and engineering drawings and a drainage report and all this stuff to determine whether the whole development as a whole works.

They're really looking at it very surgically from a product specific perspective.

Uh, to be able to make it work, they could ask for that uh adjustment to occur.

Um so it doesn't honestly happen a lot um in in the since the adoption of the UDC, the independent review of of applications, such as a non-use variance uh or something separate from a larger development plan that hasn't come together as a concurrent package has not occurred that frequently.

And that's largely because the new decision making threshold for a non-use variance, which lands at planning commission is a huge expense for most property owners.

It's you know, you're looking at two to three thousand dollars before you even get a decision, let alone paying your designer drawing up plans.

So many homeowners or or uh applicants shy away from it, period, and they find a way to make their project work under a code.

You know, I suppose I'll just have to uh to actually get my hands on it and uh and read through it.

I like paper versus looking at it online.

Um it does seem like some of this makes it uh asks the decision-making body, whether that's the planning commission, council, planning department, to make this decision without with with less information.

Um I think when I look into it, it's I think your response would be, but yeah, but they only get it for a certain amount of time and then they have to bring you that information.

But I'm not clear if uh if there's something else in here where we're kind of the gas station example kind of uh means something to me because we've approved some gas stations and you know, the distance from homes is is there for uh for a reason.

And ensure it cost the developer money, you know, oh he has to do these plans.

Well, it could it cost those citizens that own the homes around the gas station something too.

It's their pretty much their life to own those homes.

And when the gas station gets closer than what we originally uh drew our setbacks for, that's an impact on them.

But uh thanks.

Yep.

And I will maybe just to add to that kind of uh knowing that further understanding.

Um I think the important thing is the language and adjustments that we've proposed under the draft ordinance doesn't change the threshold for that decision making.

So still 15% is staying at the staff level, which you think of a five-foot setback and 15%, you're looking at one point three feet about approximately.

Um whereas that 250 foot uh use specific standard and separation, and somebody's gonna ask for a variance of that, it's it's usually not gonna be enough to make their project work, which they would need to go to a non-use variance, which means planning commission still has to decide on that.

So it still maintains that hierarchy of approval threshold.

But certainly let me know if there's other questions as you look through the draft ordinance.

Councilman Casey.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um so when someone applies for this, this variances from you, they're they're gonna be presenting you information, correct?

It shows why they need that.

And so I I think I remember seeing something before that might have to do with like the the product type they were building, that type of housing just it just didn't work with the driveway and some other to meet all the other requirements, made it not meet something else and those sorts of things.

So I don't it's probably I don't necessarily see the gas station example, but the examples that I remember seeing before were all relatively minor.

And I know for do it to do a development plan and then bring it to the planning commission and get it shot down after doing that work or having to make adjustments after the fact could be expensive.

So I can see that I could see the reason for this.

Yeah, and I will say it maintains all similar to that that kind of last comment I had about the changing of decision making thresholds.

It doesn't change any of the review criteria.

Um, and in many cases, we might get a sketch drawing or sketch plan that comes in with it to kind of illustrate their intent, but it's not the full-blown design of a development plan or something similar.

So that's it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Moving on to item 10A.

Um item 10A has been withdrawn by the council members.

So we will move on to council member reports if there's anybody with council member reports.

Councilman Donaldson.

Thank you, madam president.

I'm just gonna pull something up here.

And um as I do sometimes, I would like to uh recognize a Colorado Springs police officer who lost his life in the line of duty.

Um 46 years ago yesterday, so on April 12th, 1980.

Uh his name was Augustus Joseph Pereira Jr.

He had been uh a police officer for Colorado Springs for two years.

And uh he had been born in 1953, and the brief history of what happened is while Officer Pereira was driving patrol vehicle.

He was flagged down by a 7 Eleven store clerk who ran into the intersection of Delta Drive and Hancock Expressway.

The clerk informed him that a man was causing a disturbance in the store.

Officer Pereira escorted the man outside the store.

As a suspect was walking toward the door, he was heard to say that he was not going to be taken to jail.

And this suspect then produced a 38-caliber revolver and shot Officer Pereira five times with three bullets taking effect.

Officer Pereira returned fire wounding the suspect, and the suspect was later tried and found not guilty by reason of insanity, and he was sent to the Colorado State Hospital and remained in custody until his death in 2010.

So I want to thank uh Officer Praira and his family for his service to the city of Colorado Springs.

And then this my second item.

As we sit here with only four of us here today, or at least this afternoon, um I just want to read a couple things from our understood.

And we do have two online this morning.

How many?

I'm not sure how many were excused this morning or how many of are online.

Um citizens have asked me about uh why aren't all the council members there why don't you do why don't you say something?

Um they expect us to kind of police ourselves.

Uh we don't have a quorum in the building.

I mean, we we have two online.

I'll just read uh three two is attendance and it says uh three two A2.

No council member may be excused from attending a city council meeting without the permission of the city council.

Um there is an option when someone's excused in the morning, we could I could ask.

What I would ask is that we just hear why.

I mean, I think that would be reassuring to citizens to know excused he's out of state, you know, on a on a family vacation or why.

And then when people um leave at lunchtime and don't come back, uh why?

And so a council member's presence at a city council meeting may be achieved electronically and or telephonically with the approval of the president, but it's not our right to uh attend uh online.

That is only if the president approves it, and if the president approves it, that a council member could uh uh make a motion to appeal that, and then we would vote on it.

So I think it's important that we're here uh in person and certainly that we uh you know attend the meetings.

So I think it's important that we're here uh in person and certainly that we uh you know attend the meetings, and so just want to express my concern about that, and I may do that.

I may it I would I would appreciate it, and I think citizens would appreciate it to know why members aren't here, even if they're attending electronically, what's the what's the reason for that?

It you know, it's more convenient if we just do things from home, but uh I think citizens expect more from us.

Councilman Lineweber.

Thank you.

Um yeah, it was great um to kind of hear about um the different segments of tourism and um certainly outdoor recreation is a big part of that.

Um and I wanted to talk about um we just finished our outdoor um Pikespeak Outdoor Recreation Alliance uh had their leadership conference on Friday for the region, and we had over a hundred different leaders from the region come together to to really look at taking on some of the challenges that we have within our outdoor spaces and how to balance outdoor recreation and conservation and really move forward.

I mean, as you know, um PPRA just received a $2.5 million grant, and we're looking at other infrastructure opportunities that are coming forward.

And so this group got together and really hashed out and worked out a lot of those things at this meeting.

So I'm really excited to say that things are moving along very, very well in that context, and um it's just a really kind of a um uh a great moment that we're really starting to kind of lean into outdoor recreation and and we have some momentum right now, certainly momentum that we've always had, but we've just not really paid attention entirely to.

So um I'm I'm excited about that piece.

Um I'm also um you will be hearing it was officially announced at this conference that PPORA is officially changing their name, and the new name will be Pikes Peak Outdoors.

Um it's more simplified, it's more broader, and it really kind of encompasses more of what that organization is doing.

It really is um, it really is taking on the role of being the organization that looks at the full picture of what our outdoors delivers for our citizens and for our tourists that come here.

And um, and how do we best leverage that and also protect it at the same time for our future generations?

So, anyway, it was a pretty exciting conference.

Um we had um several really great speakers come and talk to us, and we had a lot of roundtable conversations, and um it was a really, really great event.

It was actually I think it was six hours long, so it was a big day.

So anyway, that was the the major stuff.

So anyway.

Thank you for that update.

I see no other council member updates online or at the dais.

Um