Welcome back to this weekly meeting of the Community Planning and Housing Committee with Denver City Council.

Your community planning and housing committee starts now.

Hello and good afternoon.

Welcome to Community Planning and Housing.

Today is Tuesday, July 14th.

And we have an action item and briefing for today.

Let's go ahead and get started with introductions.

I'm Diana Romero Campbell, and I represent Southeast Denver in District 4, and I will turn right Amanda Sawyer, District 5.

Jamie Torres, West Denver District 3.

Wonderful.

And we'll go ahead and start with our first action item.

And I'll turn it over to you to introduce what we're going to be discussing today.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

David Gaspers, Special Project Supervisor in Community Planning and Development.

And I have in front of you today the ETOD implementation plan from Federal BRT contract.

So this will be a contract we're taking through to council.

I'll give you some overview and background, run through a high level review of the scope and try to answer any questions for you.

We have tried to brief as many council members as before this meeting, so hopefully many of you are aware of at least some elements of what I'll go over.

All right, so the project overview we are focused on Federal Boulevard to the extents of the city, both south and north, so the entire bit of federal within Denver and the half mile buffer on either side of the boulevard.

This is an FTA grant award of two million dollars.

We actually applied for this grant back in 2024, very slow moving through the federal process, but we did receive the award uh last year, and it is a part of their pilot program for transit oriented development.

This is actually the same program that we received funding to do the uh East and E Central uh NPI plans all on Colfax.

Um now already I don't know, five, six years ago.

I feel like it wasn't a lot way longer than what it probably is, but um so very excited to go back to that funding source.

Uh and obviously they saw that as a success success at the FTA.

Uh the award includes a three-year limited time employee.

Uh, that will be Josh Paul Mary, who's someone we were able to bring back through uh our layoffs, actually, through this for a three year stint as a senior city planner.

Um we are not a direct recipient of FTA funds, so RTD is serving as the pass through.

Uh so we have an IGA in place with them.

Project schedule.

Uh, hopefully, we would be working with our consultants starting this September for approximately 18 months, and then uh Josh would actually continue on beyond those 18 months to actually deliver a regulatory package.

So, this is not an adopted plan, uh, but it would uh likely result in either uh a text amendment or map amendment that would help implement some of the findings of the plan.

We've selected HNTB through a very competitive uh procurement process.

I think we had six or seven really great submittals and H and DB did a great job of combining both their national expertise on equitable TOD with a local team for a lot of knowledge uh for the corridor.

Uh so Diane Gormley Barnes will be their project manager, uh, but we um have that paired to a lot of local knowledge uh with like Beth Bogle Sang, who has worked on many of the MPI plans and will be working on far northwest as we do this plan, uh, as well as Arlingtanawaki, who has uh great knowledge of uh the Federal Boulevard Corridor from an economic standpoint.

So we think it's a really great team.

I'd also highlight that um for the regulatory work they actually hired Deirdre O's, a former CPD employee who now works at Foster Dram, Millsteen Calcher.

So really in-depth knowledge or zoning code is an important part of why we chose this team because we felt they really would know how to help us advance equitable TOD.

And you might be saying, what is equitable TOD?

Well, I uh I've been fortunate enough to work in TOD here in Denver for about 15 years at least now.

And um, and I've been able to talk to a lot of other communities that uh do transit-oriented development.

Uh a couple cities in particular have been leading with equitable TOD, Chicago and Austin.

We've actually worked with them closely and they've learned a lot from us, and we're learning a lot from them.

Uh we did it a little bit differently, right?

We had a TOD plan first.

We started to integrate equity into the Blueprint Denver uh concepts, and now we've actually been applying equitable development since Blueprint Denver uh across all the city.

If we take federal, for example, it could be $300 million of federal and and local funds through CDOT.

How do we actually make sure that the improvement to the transit corridor actually serves the people that are already there, right?

That actually have been riding the bus today on federal.

And so we want to make sure to not just uh do traditional TOD but really put those equitable outcomes in front and make sure that we are removing barriers that we may have in place to achieve those goals.

Very uh small schedule there.

Uh that most important thing out of this is that of all the tasks, we want to achieve it in a relatively quick manner, 18 months with the consultant team, and then Josh would be able to take over from there and deliver that regulatory package afterwards.

So not only do we do the work, but we actually have uh staff time to uh put things on the books, if you will.

Scope items here, uh we have this ETOD policy and strategy component, uh, opportunity site planning, where we would actually look at very specific sites along the corridor, both small and large, and actually uh run it through a uh site master plan process and then infrastructure planning.

Really looking at the small area plans that we have, right?

There's already five of the six MPI plans uh completed.

We're working on the sixth one.

Uh we're not creating new adopted policies here.

We're trying to take the adopted policies that we've already gone through with those planning efforts and actually implement them.

So that's the intent of this effort.

Uh we have that regulatory framework assessment that again uh I think Josh and Girl will work closely on uh to really evaluate our zoning code and other uh regulatory tools and try to advance an implementation package.

Uh Dottie has assisted us uh with a first and last mile study, uh, so they'll be heavily involved in that component.

I think that's an important opportunity to note that um we're working closely with CDOT and RTD on this.

I mentioned RTD is a uh a pass through CDOT, obviously, is the one doing the work on the bus rapid transit.

Uh this is to supplement that.

It's it's we're not doing anything for CDOT and vice versa, but we are coordinating very closely to make sure that as they move forward with their process.

Uh we aren't um duplicating efforts and are augmenting each other.

And then finally, we would have an ETOD implementation plan.

This is the idea that we actually have an implementation plan that follows up on those MPI documents and actually delivers uh next steps for uh those key recommendations in the corridor.

Community engagement will be a little bit different uh here.

It's much more of a targeted approach, um, so maybe not quite as um broad as you would expect in an MPI neighborhood plan because we've already asked the community what their vision is and and what they like and don't like, but we want to actually drive uh dive deeper down uh with uh stakeholder groups uh and to make sure that we really understand how any uh uh recommendations to move forward with implementation here impact uh the community and get their input.

So our desired outcomes uh are to deliver on those adopted plans to implement transit supportive uh recommendations through our adopted plans, advance eTOD supportive zoning changes, remove barriers to ETOD.

I think that's the big takeaway, um, and also to preserve that cultural significance of the corridor.

Uh we've already been seeing some of this push with the Asia Center, for example, and how do we actually have that?

We hope uh and it's definitely a work in progress, but we hope that we can actually have some real tools come out of this uh um process to help us uh address those concerns that that pop up when uh something like that happens.

So uh with that I'll answer any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation.

Um we have a few council members in the queue, and I'd like to welcome Council President Sandoval to the meeting.

Um let's go ahead and get started with Councilmember LV Dis.

Thank you so much, committee chair.

Um, thank you so much.

It's been great talking about this.

It has been a huge concern about what the BRT will do to federal and the small businesses and the cultural importance of federal, and I appreciate that you all understand that that you are being proactive, that we're coming with this now before we start on the BRT.

Um it sounds like there isn't any actual tangible suggestions that that will be something that will be developed through this team.

Can you talk about how I, as a council member, can best make sure that community knows where to go to with concerns and who to talk to about those concerns?

Yeah, sure.

Well, so we'll have a project website and we'll have uh navigators that will be out in the community, focus groups.

So we'll work closely with all the council members in the corridor to actually make sure that um whoever's invited to any of these more in-depth uh engagement uh opportunities we align with with who you want to make sure it needs to be in the room.

We know that you know the corridor better than anyone else.

Um and then broadly speak speaking, uh, you know, anybody who wants to uh reach out and be able to get involved in the process, we'll make sure we can figure that out.

Wonderful.

Awesome.

I look forward to working together on that.

Thank you.

Thank you, committee chair.

Thank you.

Um, Councilmember Torres, thank you.

Um what I'm what I'm gonna get caught up in a little bit here is what we do once we've identified um involuntary displacement or equity concerns along this corridor.

And it can't be enough just to say these are the vulnerabilities, yeah, and we've put them into a report and we've made um folks aware of them.

Um this still marching forward despite having those tools in place, I think becomes where I where I'm worried about um uh things just getting left behind and us not adequately preparing for those impacts because I think even um Asia Center was anticipation of uh a BRT land purchase, right?

That they need another lane on Councilman LB that is a side of Federal Boulevard, um, and what what is that property owner plan to do to um uh to deal with that?

Um there are things that I think that can teach us about um how are we how are how are we providing pathways for business owners who don't have they're not gonna be coming to our public meetings in most cases, you know.

Um like they it it is in and I don't think BRT thus far has done a very good job reaching residents about BRT.

They've held probably the appropriate and the required public meetings, and um, but I it's not really reaching folks other than the transit advocates who already like it and want to you know support it.

So um it this is gonna feel like a really swift um kind of action plan once it's getting installed where folks are gonna be like, wait a minute, I don't know how this affects me or my family.

The um the half mile in, it's halfway into most of my neighborhoods, it's all of the Sun Valley neighborhood, right?

Um so that's I think the thing that I'm gonna get caught up in as this moves forward is yes, we can identify and I appreciate that it starts with an equity analysis, um, but then uh what are we prepared to do um with that information becomes a question, and it's not just a CPD question.

Um, this is actually I think largely economic development um and uh housing stability.

So um uh those are the two agencies that I think should be most invested in what are we doing in parallel with this as opposed to afterwards, after communities raised um uh concerns after business owners have said nobody told us about this plan um or our leases are month to month, or you know, what are those vulnerabilities?

Yeah, wow.

Oh, well that was that's a lot.

I completely agree with everything you're saying, though, and it's exactly why we we applied for this grant and want to try to achieve, right?

And I can't promise you anything.

That's not my my point here today.

His point is I think our intent is to try to dive right into that.

So when we say targeted engagement, we're talking about going right after those businesses, right?

I mean, that's where we'll need your help, but like we don't need a big public meeting where everyone just can come in.

We actually need to have in-depth conversations with the people that could be potentially their small business gets displaced as soon as construction happens, right?

Or whatever, right?

So, like, and we need to actually have real tools that come out of it.

It's it's not enough to identify.

I mean, it's pretty easy to say that there's there's a risk for displacement already, right?

It's like how do we actually have tools that you as council members can actually help us and help them stay in place, right?

And so, like, I think we want to explore all of those ideas.

And there's some examples of other studies that are doing some some things.

Would they work for Denver?

That's what we need to find out.

We have a peer-city review as a part of that initial study where we want to look at other communities.

Uh, Washington, DC is one example where they have um small business uh displacement funds where they actually have a first right to return and actually are are having a funding assistance to be able to maintain being in business until they can come back into the place.

I don't know if that is even possible here quite yet, but let's find out, right?

Um and uh I think if we are gonna do more of these BRT corridors in the city, we need to have these tools in place.

We hope that this is a starting point with federal, but we can then apply it to other corridors like Colorado as they would continue to be invested from our transit agency.

Do you do you anticipate at all that there is a um like a uh a full stop like juncture for this project, but if it doesn't meet particular needs um for either um mitigating those equity concerns that we don't move forward with it?

Yeah, I don't I don't know if I can answer that.

Seems like it's probably at a policy level between the city and the state.

CDOT is the one actually doing the implementation of the actual transit investment, right?

So, like the question is is you know, do we feel like that's uh necessary to ensure that we have the tools in place before uh construction and I think that's a good point.

CDAC can do it with or without there are probably certain things that we have to approve along the way.

Yeah, yeah, you're right.

I probably don't know all those details, so it's a really good question.

We are working with Ryan Knowles, the CDOP uh BRT program manager, and um I've been in those uh BRT meetings with them for several years on federal, uh so we can we can dive into detail.

I will say I feel like my my district is getting more to the point because I'm hearing it more and more.

Um don't give us a halfway project if it's not gonna involve um the concerns we have about the harms that could come.

Um uh like don't take us halfway there, right?

Um uh at all.

And so like I've had some of my community say, well, then we don't want half the project if it's gonna come with potential risks.

Um and it they've been pretty big projects.

So uh uh I I'm seeing that pushback more and more if it's not kind of more comprehensive.

Yeah, no, absolutely.

Well, um note taken.

Yeah, and uh we'll want to be able to work with uh the council offices as well as all of our external partners to make sure we get the best outcomes.

I think it's important to note that um every corridor is different, and right now we have the the real pain of Colfax and what that looks like, right?

And it and let's acknowledge that it's been challenging.

Um that's a different uh corridor, uh it's a different um type of potentially BRT, right?

Um, so we'll need to think through how this looks like on federal um and and hopefully um be able to to make sure that we don't have as uh as the same same challenges uh on the uh construction timeline.

Okay, thanks, David.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um Councilmember Sawyer.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, thank you so much for this.

I my question was a little bit along the same lines because Councilwoman Alvidres and Councilmember Heinz and I have been working on um formalizing the biofund into ordinance.

Um, and what has been extraordinary about that is to you know be told like oh you can't have a revolving loan fund, and then suddenly last week there was a revolving loan fund of a hundred million dollars announced from the mayor's office.

So it's a little crazy how that works.

Um but I I wanna be really clear that um like our research is also from DC.

Uh there is a biofund in Baltimore.

There are a number of peer cities across all of that's already done.

Yeah, yeah.

We already did all of that research.

Um it's already in white papers in city council.

There's already a draft of the by there are actually two drafts of the biofund ordinance that exist.

So my concern here is that the agency that should be spearheading this that has this information, Dito, clearly hasn't told you guys that we're doing this work.

They clearly haven't shared with you the information we have shared with them on pure city research and things like that.

That's really concerning because having lived through uh the Colfax BRT from you know almost the very beginning of it, um, there are there's probably only two people on this planet who can speak more about the impacts of the BRT on communities than I can, and one of them is the project manager for the BRT, right?

So um I just I am concerned.

I think it's great that you guys are having these conversations.

I think it's really scary that you don't know that we have been having these conversations for two years.

Um I mean, we've literally been to budget and policy and presented it publicly, so it's not a secret.

Yeah.

So that said, one of the biggest questions we have when it comes to the biofund is how do we make the determination of what a qualifying property is?

And the reason for that question is because, like, for example, the BRT on Federal Boulevard is a state project.

Should the city of Denver be supporting businesses that are impacted by state projects, or should the state be doing that?

Right?

Um, Colfax BRT is a uh city of Denver project.

And so that's a very different question.

We should be supporting those businesses where we know that there's an average of 20% drop in sales for the time that those businesses are directly impacted by the construction in front of them.

Um so these are the kinds of things that we're working on.

I mentioned it to Josh when he briefed me on this, um, and I do think that there are some more conversations to be had.

Um, but that ordinance is gonna come through before this project is done because I'm leaving next July.

So um it's gonna get done before I leave, and uh and so I think that there needs to be a little bit better coordination here on this.

Absolutely.

Um, because there are really only two anti-displacement tools that we have right now.

Um one is only for residential property taxes, that's the host property tax rebate.

So we need to consider that.

The other is the bio fund, which is not formalized anywhere right now and only exists in rules and regs within Dito, and clearly that's not enough based on the conversation that we just had.

So I just um want to flag that for you guys if you want to have more conversation about it offline.

I'm happy to do that.

Like I said, I already mentioned it to Josh.

Um, but I do think that council mentor's is right that we have to figure out what tools we have in place, and it has to be Dito and it has to be host um in order to ensure that when we accept this 1.6 million dollars in this contract and we put this in place and we do this work, it's comprehensive and it's it's not siloed like we see so many things in the city happen.

So that's what I got for you.

No, that's that's wonderful, and um, I'll I'll take the constructive criticism actually because as uh special projects uh supervisor, I'm not in the weeds as much as say Josh or Jonathan Webster, who actually is the one that applied for the grant, wrote the grant, won the grant, and then did the scope and all the work with RTD.

So uh they probably uh are far more aware of some of the in the weeds things that you just referenced.

Um, but I I think more importantly, I think going forward, we need to be in complete coordination.

I can tell you that uh um Dito and host have been involved in the the scope and will be on our project management team and be in in the weeds with us going forward.

So yeah, I'm happy to take up your offer of uh making sure that we're getting everything that you've already done.

Okay, awesome, really appreciate it.

Thanks.

Great, thank you.

Um, Council President Sandoval, thank you.

All right, thank you for this briefing.

For I think it goes through four council districts.

Um, and having had my colleagues just come forward with a plan last night um to rezone parts of federal for the active street Ocean overlay, um, and a lot of work that they're doing, making sure that we're I think one of the hardest things about our job is aligning all of the other agency work plans with all the other things that are happening.

Everyone tends to be in the silo.

And I'll just say I'm I'm not I don't have my council district is not in the BRT current BRT on, but I've heard horror stories about it.

Um, and we need to make sure that we're really working with CDOT.

I have concerns that it's CDOT.

I think CDOT's really good at making sure roads are paved.

I don't think they're really good at anything else.

I don't have a lot of nice things to say because I have I-70 and I-25 through my council district, and they just don't take care of things the way that we take care of them.

Um we pay federal, they don't we do the timing on federal, we do the time on East Colfax, so and West Colfax.

So I think I mean the traffic likes, I think we're just gonna have to really monitor and figure out how this works, and also we're gonna get a new governor, which means we'll get a new director at RTD, and then things can change depending on what that administration wants to do.

That they have oversight over it, similar to when we got in there.

We have a new person at Dito who said in the we've been talking about the bio fund forever.

They're biofund, I think it got traction.

I don't think that this administration and D and Dito care much about the biofund.

At least it feels like in my personal opinion, I'll say I statements, um, which is disappointing.

And I serve on the downtown development authority, and I'm proud to serve on that, but we also have 77 other neighborhoods in Denver that really need a lot of help.

We can't continue to have our downtown just be the only light industry where people come in and to work that I think that just gone under COVID.

I think we just have to recreate the wheel.

So I'm excited about this, but I also be interested in monitoring it, especially because I have a near a neighborhood plan coming that we have when finished, so this will be essential to how this is all seen together because of federal.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Um I actually my sentiments are the same.

Um I know that residents in D4 are very concerned about the Colorado Boulevard BRT.

I think there's a lot of misconception for what it's going to be, what it could be, where it's where it's going.

Um, and so I think that as we go through these processes, it's going to be really important, and everybody's watching.

You know, we're watching to see to see where it's going.

Um, so um, I don't have any other comments uh you wanted to get back into the council member.

Thank you so much.

Um thank you again for this work.

I you know agree with a lot of what my colleagues have said.

I also want to make sure that we're talking about bus riders and the people that need this BRT to get around.

I I mentioned at council on Monday, which is yesterday, uh, that I have ridden the Colfax bus often.

I live near it, and I used it to get to college when I went to Metro, and there's cleaning people, a lot of janitors live in my district that use it to get home.

Um, and the fact that it doesn't serve them is also an issue.

So I want to be careful as we have these conversations to also include the people that rely on this because I think that some of us don't have to use the bus.

I don't have to use the bus anymore at that time.

I did, and um I don't want to see a good upgrade to a city asset um get overshot by the um harms that can be caused, and how do we take those harms also seriously?

I think about what did we learn from Colvex?

It can we look at can that be part of this?

Like how many businesses did we actually lose, how many residents did we actually lose, and how could we have done things differently to keep them as well?

And I will also say the one of the most disappointing things about this is that these funds can't go to small businesses, right?

They're not gonna help the actual issue.

And I I am concerned about you know, study after study and all the research that has been done and done, and when the study is complete, then the real problem is finding funding to help with the issues.

And so maybe that could be something also included in here.

Where would that funding come from?

And I agree with uh I don't know which of my colleagues said this, but this this is a state project, this is a state highway, it has harmed our communities for many years.

It's a high injury network, and so from that perspective, I'm really excited about being able to cross federal safely, and so just want to highlight those other issues as well, and um make sure we consider not only the small businesses but the people that rely on this transportation and what that interruption will look like to that as well because this is a key part of getting people from here to downtown and beyond.

So just wanted to highlight that.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, thanks.

Thank you.

Thank you, Tony Dair.

This is an action item.

Uh, do we have okay, Sawyer's second motion?

Okay, uh be just as seconded.

Um, do we need a vote on this?

Okay.

Thumbs up.

We're good.

Alrighty.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Uh we have another uh briefing for today, so we'll give just a moment for that transition.

It's going to be about the Denver permitting office plan review and permitting updates.

I don't know if you're in this.

So we'll allow for just a few moments of transition and chair changes.

Thank you.

Okay, we're ready.

I turn it over to you, Jill, when you're ready and to introduce your team and take it away.

All right, wonderful.

Thank you so much.

Um, thank you, members of city council uh for having us today.

Uh Jill Jennings Golek, director of the Denver Permitting Office here to provide um a number of updates on what we've been up to and initiatives from our various departments.

I think we were last year in October or last fall anyway.

I'll let my colleagues introduce themselves.

Daria Mike Horn, the through director of these runway services.

Hi, nice to see everyone again.

I'm Robert Peak with the Denver Permitting Office.

Kayleigh Hill, I'm a project champion for the AHAR team in community planning and development.

Alright, so we have a lot of items to cover today.

We'll go fast so we can save time for questions.

We're going to start with just a quick update on our proposition one two through fast track process, share some tools that we have been developing that we're calling Start Smart, talk about our 180-day compliance, a residential interior only quick permit we launched last December.

I'll talk a little bit about our on-time review performance, and we'll give an update on our one-and-done concept site plan, talk about the new demolition permit process, and then Darien will speak to some grease interceptor policy changes they made earlier this year and an update on our outdoor places program and patios in the right-of-way.

Before we dive in, just a quick reminder what is the Denver permitting office.

So we were created last April.

We serve as the centralized office responsible for the alignment, accountability, and coordination across the permitting process for development on private property and any associated public improvements that go along with that.

And so we are cross-departmental, we work with all of our teams across the city.

So you'll see we never come alone, we come with our partners.

So I'll kick off the Prop 123 process really quick just to give you an update.

We were here last fall as we were about to embark on the pilot, and we've completed that pilot.

We've actually officially adopted the process, and so Kayleigh will talk a little bit about that.

Just as a quick refresher, we were successful in getting a grant in November of 2024.

We spent the first half of 2025 developing the process, and then this is something we have to have in place as part of our second commitment to the state for proposition one, two, three.

And we have achieved that time flip time frame as of June, and then we have to officially have it in place, but we're already running it, as I said, by end of this year.

So with that, I'll turn it over to Kaylee to talk more about the fast track process.

Hey Phil, so projects that meet basically fast track eligibility are automatically in the program.

So if they meet the eligibility criteria that we've set out here, then they're automatically in our fast track program.

They only have to make a decision to opt out.

So being able to serve the same customers in the same type of projects with the fast track process.

And so the first eligibility criteria is the project needs to be 50% or more affordable at specific AMI limits.

If that's a rental project, it needs to be 60% AMI or less.

And for sale units, 120% AMI or less.

So the first criteria is the one that is required by the state, and the rest are criteria that we have sort of put together so we can serve our customers.

Next slide.

Some of what that looks like is shifting some timelines for both customers and staff to give both customers and staff more time within the process.

Since it is a very fast process, even gaining a couple of days in certain places is very helpful.

For multifamily projects, what this process looks like is a three-phase process.

So at least two 90-day phases for projects if they're multifamily or commercial, and then one phase if it's just a single family duplex process at minimum.

And you'll see what that kind of looks like here.

But we've taken the pilot and the time since the pilot to refine the multifamily process and the single unit dwelling unit process.

Projects that opt out of the process.

So again, if they meet the affordability criteria, they're automatically in the fast track.

If a project decides that that's too fast and they want to opt out, then that project will not be in fast track and they'll just be in our standard queue with the other reviewers.

And then really quickly, just a quick data point.

We did have one project go through our process that was a multifamily project with two buildings, so technically two multifamily projects, one Line Tech and one for sale affordable project.

They got through phase two in 87 days and phase three in 64 days and 56 days, respectively.

So pretty good timing there.

Next slide, please.

So this is just a snapshot of sort of what the AHRT program is doing right now.

The red box on the left are our pre-prop 123 or AHRT projects.

Any project that has a check mark next to it means we finished it.

And then there are a few AHART projects that are not going through POP 123 that we're still working on, but we anticipate they'll be done by the end of this year.

And then in the middle are all of the Prop 123 projects that we are working on currently, and on the right are all the projects that we anticipate being done by the end of this year and how many units that includes in total.

So including preserved and new units, we're aiming to, through this process, do about 1800 units through the fast track and AR.

Thanks.

So one of the biggest changes for this Prop 123 process is really the operating model, and that's the way we actually do the work internally and with our customers.

So not necessarily the process, which you'll see on the next slide, but how are we managing the work?

And the biggest thing here is that in order to be able to achieve the 90 days, we needed a really structured process.

The standard cue allows sort of rolling submittals whenever the applicant is ready.

But in order for us to manage our capacity and keep these projects on schedule, we needed to set more clear sort of timing requirements.

So this is the flow chart of how these reviews look now.

But essentially, it means that they our applicants have a deadline for initial submittals of midnight on Mondays, unless there's a city holiday.

We will not be accepting applications on city holidays, which is about six days a year, or at least six days this year.

So the application needs to be in on Monday.

We'll do a completeness check on Tuesdays.

The applicant has until the end of Wednesday to do any uh clear any deficiencies, get the project back in.

We'll look at it again on Thursdays, and if everything is good, we'll route it for review.

That initial review is 10 business days, which is really similar to the current SDP sort of building permit process.

But resubmittals will be a five-day review, a five-day turn from city staff.

Resubmittles are due on Wednesdays and will be routed on Thursdays.

So projects are always routed on Thursdays, and comments will either come back two Wednesdays later or one Wednesday later from city staff.

And our applicants have two weeks between each review to resubmit to us.

Which is a big departure from our from our standard process, but um they're getting the hang of it.

The next slide, this is just the multifamily process here.

So it is a three-phase process.

Um the first phase will be 90 days only if there are applications that need to go through a 90-day process.

So concept plan is not an application that the 90 days is applicable to under state law.

Um that's really where we want to spend our time to really get through the details, make sure everything is really set up correctly to go into the required 90-day submittals for phases two and three.

Phase one would only be 90 days if they need a variance, if they need to go to a board, if they need to do vacation, those kinds of things.

Otherwise, there's no 90 days on the first phase, but then phases two and three are both 90-day processes.

And in general, what we're asking our customers to do is rather than stagger their submittals is to submit everything all at once.

Part of that is because the 90 days starts when we have a complete application, so we've had to implement this completeness check process, which I just talked about a little bit.

Um, once that completeness check is done, the 90 days begins, and we have 90 days to make a decision on an application.

So rather than trying to run the zone lot amendment and the engineering and the dedication all on different time frames, we've asked the applicants to bring those all in together so we can run them on one 90-day time frame.

Um, and that is the same scenario for both phase phases two and three, um, so that we can just track those a little more cleanly with our customers.

Um we've also been working on our single family duplex and ADU processes.

Um, and unfortunately, there's not a one-size-fits-all for this.

Um, so we've come up with several options.

The first option, the easiest option is option one here, which is they don't need any relief.

It's not more than three dwelling units and there's no landmark involved, they can go straight to permit, go through one 90-day review phase and get a permit.

They can go sh go straight to permit, go through one 90 90-day review phase and get a permit.

But if there's anything else that's sort of going on with that project, if we figure that out in the middle of permitting, there is the potential that that project needs to go backwards in the process and go complete those items first before we can finish their permit.

If we know that there's a zone lot amendment or zoning relief necessary before they get to permitting, we would ask that they complete those things first.

So that's option two here.

Finish their zone law amendment, finish their relief, and then go into their permit.

If the project includes three or more dwelling units, they'll be following the multi-unit process, which I discussed previously.

And lastly, option four, if landmark, if the property's landmarker in historic district, they would need to go through the pre-application with landmark and also go through go through the first phase of review with landmark before coming in for their building permit.

Thanks, Kayleigh.

So as I mentioned, we did we have now officially adopted this process.

We did adopt it through the through a policy and through the executive permitting committee, which was created through Executive Order 151 that created the Denver permitting office.

We officially launched it on June 22nd.

All the policy materials, customer guides, et cetera, can all be found on our website.

So if you go to DenverGov.org and search affordable housing review team, you'll find all that based on a comment we got actually last time we were here.

We've also added a link about funding resources.

So it takes you to Prop 123 funds, to host web page about funding, CHAPA, etc., so that it's all in one place.

And this is just the front page of the policy here.

But a really huge effort.

I'm really excited to see what we've been able to accomplish thus far and what we'll what we'll be able to accomplish, you know, really through the rest of this year.

So great great win here, I think.

Alright, I'm gonna turn it over to Robert to share information on our StartSmart tools.

Yeah, I think I believe last time we presented, we talked about the need to provide more information up front for our homeowners and small business owners on how to navigate and discover the information that they need through the permitting process.

So we've created a couple of tools that are that is now live.

We posted it in April of this year.

Um very simply a start smart residential guide and start smart restaurant guide.

Um there are uh some basic forms that ask uh our customers a few questions on what they're doing.

So if you're a new homeowner, it'll say, you know, are you building a new home?

Are you putting an addition on?

Do you have an ADU?

Are you simply installing the fence?

Um and it'll uh based on the questions that they provide, it'll pull up what uh what reviews and all the permits will likely be required.

So I'm calling this a discovery tools, really kind of the first step that our customers can take to start pulling together the information that they need to be able to apply for their permits.

Um we have two that are live now, um single-family duplex tool and one for restaurants, actually.

Joe, if you could go to the next slide.

Uh so this one, uh there are a couple screenshots of what the residential projects guide looks like.

Um, as I said, there are kind of simple online tools and forms that our our customers can use to navigate through the permitting process as an output of the tool, they receive a full report of all the um uh necessary reviews and permits that might be needed, and also um relevant links to all the places that they need to go to pull up any other technical guidance that they might need through their through the application process.

Um we've we've presented this um as well.

Um this is our guided intake and plan review tool that we're also um putting the uh start smart um designator on it.

Um so the first step will customers would use our discovery tools to figure out what information they need, and then once they've um put together their actual plans and construction drawings, then they can submit it through the through the guided intake and plan review tool that uh the council approved just this spring.

Um, and that's currently under development and we're configuring the tool right now.

It's on schedule.

Uh we hope to go to do a soft launch in September of this year.

So open it up for some of our frequent flyers and you know customers who kind of frequently use our systems to get their input and get that direct voice of the customer so we know everything is copacetic and our uh customers are able to provide that information to us.

Um, if all goes well there, um our plan is to do a full public um launch in uh uh later this fall this year.

So um shooting for October of this year, right now, um, where we would open it up to the general public and ask anyone who's submitting um what we call a log application.

And um, all remaining development service applications we're planning for Q1 of next year.

Um, and then this just provides what the timeline has been thus far for this project, and um, that we briefed you all on the floor.

We started this um on our due diligence and research back in 2024, and we're finally at the point where we're um configuring testing and and ultimately go live with the tool this fall.

Great, thanks, Margaret.

All right, um, so one of the key commitments of the Denver permitting office is that we would make a decision on any application within 180 calendar days of city review time.

So wanted to just provide a quick update and refresher on that.

Um, any existing project that was in prior to May 14th of last year, we started counting with any resubmiddle that came in after that.

Um, we're tracking um well over 3,000 records at any one time.

So that's building permit applications, fire permit, surrus and drainage permit, zoning permits, formal site development plans, zone lot amendments, and then all the various civil applications like transportation engineering plans, transportation demand management plans, storm and sanitary um plan review as well as erosion control.

We within the permitting office have specific intervention points that we follow up with team members on projects when they hit 120 and then 150 city review days.

Um, to date, and actually, this just changed over the weekend.

We haven't had five active projects now hit 180 calendar days of city review time.

We've not yet, um there have not yet been any refunds awarded.

Um, two of them were approved within the time frame that we are allowed in the executive order.

Um, one uh paid no plan review fee, so there was nothing to refund, it was a zoning only submittal, and then two others are still in process.

And um, this April we launched a tool for our customers to use on our website.

Um, so Denvergov.org slash DPO.

There's now a 180-day dashboard that our customers can input their application number, and it will tell them the amount of city days and customer time that's been accumulated since May 14th of last year.

So it's an easy way for our customers to be able to check status and number of days, um, and then we reach out to any project once it hits uh 180 days.

All right, I'm gonna turn it over to Eric to talk about a new permit we launched last year.

Thanks, Jill.

So you might be asking yourself how do we overachieve so consistently to only have five projects have exceeded that 180 day threshold.

And part of the answer that I'll talk about this afternoon is the new residential interior only quick permit um permit.

Um so uh what does that mean for uh homeowners and even for uh your small contractors that are doing interior work on homes or on one unit of a duplex or even one unit of a town home, just the single unit and that interior only work.

We've identified the opportunities to not run the customer through the ringer in the way that we have in years past.

Um and and what does that mean?

With without being sarcastic, it means we've said the risks associated with the homeowners obtaining their permits is very low, and we can mitigate some of those risks by putting our inspectors in the field on the front end, making sure that the scope and complexity of what they're claiming on the permit that gets issued is truly in alignment with what is acceptable without a full plan review.

And if it is actually exceeding the scope, then a customer needs to come in and go through uh a code review process.

But for the ones that do meet those criteria that want to do um even quite extensive interior remodels, but as long as they're not doing major structural innovations or for example replacing uh you know windows and landmark district or or items like that, um, we can issue these permits, or actually, we don't actually issue the permits.

The customer can obtain their own permit within a relatively uh quick, you know, 15, 20 minutes uh by putting in the proper information through our permitting portal.

So this kind of self-service option has been a great innovation.

There are a number of team members not only within CPD but citywide that were engaged to ensure we were uh checking the appropriate boxes, um, but also um giving the homeowners and these contractors the ability to get this to get this work done, right?

To not uh slow it down.

And it's been in effect for um a little over half a year, seven months now.

Um, this launch rate in right at the end of um 2025.

We've issued 283 quick permits, two date that didn't have to go through our plan review process.

And that equates to around 500 projects a year if you do the math over a 12-month period.

500 projects, even of the small nature that don't need to go through plan review, saves us nearly half an FTE.

It's a significant amount of time that we can now allocate our resources, which we know are you know reasonably limited, but we can allocate those reset resources to things that we need to focus on that are higher priorities, either more urgent or more critical from a safety and construction perspective.

So that's it.

Thanks, Eric.

Alright, just thought I'd share really quick where we're how we're performing right now in terms of an on-time percentage for plane review related to permits.

You can see on the slide here, sort of how we did last year relative to the year before.

So we ended the year roughly at 76% of reviews on time.

Thus far, this year we're at 88% on time through July 8th.

So that was I think last week.

And again, this is for permit reviews that are logged into the city, not our not counting our sort of two-day minor express reviews, but some huge improvements across the board from all of our teams on that.

And then another update on an initiative we launched actually about a year ago, July 15th.

One and done concept site plan.

So you have our call if you're doing a new commercial multi-family building, two-phase process for site development plans, concept, and then your formal submittal.

We heard a lot of feedback from our customers as well as from our staff that we were really misaligned with the design process on the concept side.

Concept was intended to be a pre-application, we don't charge any fees for it.

And we were seeing those go sometimes over three rounds of review, and we were asking for information that our customers just didn't have yet because they weren't there in the design process.

So last July we launched the one and done.

Um so now it's really sort of a report of findings based on what information the customers give us, releasing projects to submit for that formal site development plan after one round of review, unless generally speaking, the customers asking for more certainty at that concept phase.

And so you can see here just a huge success, and this is also removing reviews from our team's plate.

Um so uh we were an average of 1.9 rounds of review in 2025, and we're now at 1.3 rounds of review.

So I think this is a huge win for us as staff and our customers as well, and really better aligning our process with the design process.

But wait, there's more.

So, in addition to interior only remodel quick permits, uh staff have spent a substantial amount of time also working within CPD and even more so with other agencies on a demolition permit, um truly a quick permit process for permits as well.

Um, and what this means for our customers is that instead of bouncing around to multiple different agencies within the city, um, there is now truly a one-stop shop and a single workflow that our customers can go into, follow it step by step within our permitting system, and for all intents and purposes, come out with a permit at the end of the day, as long as it meets certain criteria.

Um, with that being said, the asterisk in a certain criteria mean they still need to have state of Colorado approval if there's any kind of asbestos or lead abatement, things like that.

If it's in a landmark or historic district, there's approvals that need to be obtained before they can actually get a permit out on the other end.

But it is now consolidated far more far more uh cleanly than it ever was uh in the past.

Um, you know, lots of props to our partners in DOTI and other departments for strategizing and with technology services, the amount of effort that went into really redesigning and revamping the process for the customer.

Um, again, within you know, once they have all the necessary information, uh say 20 minutes to go in and then come out with a demolition permit on the back end.

And there are a couple different flavors of demolition permits that we have.

Um, their demolition permits that'll take down a whole house or garage.

Um, and then there's more minor scopes for what we call kind of investigatory demolition if a contractor needs to go into a site and do a lot of removal before they come in and reconstruct uh attendance space, um, or if there's work that needs to be done for some forensic investigation, um, we issue those kinds of demolition permits as well.

So those are now possible quite quickly through this new and revamped process.

The other piece of information that I want to mention that's relevant to both of these items that I noted has to do with the universal composting and recycling coordinates implementation that's coming up here on September 1st.

There's a lot of work that's going into that with many team members across the city.

And with respect to CPD and the construction and demolition diversion portion of this, that will be integrated into these two processes that I just spoke of.

So customers will need to the system will actually evaluate whether or not it applies based on square footage of areas that are input.

And if it does, then the customer will need to create a waste aversion plan.

So it is kind of it will be a new intermediate step that's necessary, but of course it's required by ordinance.

It was created through a voter initiative a number of years ago.

And so we're plugging that into these quick permit processes.

So it'll be one more piece of documentation that we have to collect, but it'll be built into these as we update our tools and our systems and the whole months.

Great, thanks Eric.

All right, Darren, turn it over to you.

To echo Eric, there's more.

Many of you, I don't know how much you know about Greece Receptors.

I actually didn't know much about Grease Interceptors until I started with the city last year.

But Grease interceptors are huge for our small businesses with restaurants.

There is a lot of maintenance and upkeep and requirements that the city has placed on, usually the tenants, not even the property owners, which makes it incredibly challenging for them.

And so as Eric has said, I think 180 days has been a great forcing function in many ways for all of us to rethink our processes and really have that lens towards risk and say, where is there some opportunity for us to maybe take on more risk and where is the risk low when we're trying to minimize it to zero in ways that aren't realistic?

And so this is a really good example of that, where historically we did not allow hydromechanical grease interceptors, which is a type of grease interceptor.

You had to have to submit a variance, and it was a kind of bureaucratic process.

You submitted a variance, went to the manager, the manager would bring it to me, go to someone else, and it takes quite some time.

And so we've moved to be in alignment with the international code and just allow hydromechanical interceptors just by standard.

So we updated that in the building code that went lab earlier this year.

It was a great partnership and collaboration with CPD.

Again, um not kind of over-engineering it so that the risk was so so low, but just making it clear that alright with the smaller interceptor, your maintenance is much more important, right?

And so uh the point being that the city not kind of over focus in on oversight and instead saying here are more options now you work accordingly with those options, and and us really leveraging the data that we have within the city to show where there are issues of more grease perhaps entering into our system and focusing on those areas.

So we're really excited about this.

And this is a change that we made for both our grease interceptors and oil unisceptors this year.

And so if you think sand and oil interceptors, that's more car wash and more industrial perhaps settings.

And then the last slide here, uh, this is a collaboration really across all of us, CPD, DPO uh with our outdoor places program, where um uh again, usually restaurants that were looking to open up and leverage the patio in the right-of-way or create a patio on the right-of-way.

There was multiple permit reviews that needed to be conducted.

There was too many handoffs uh usually between CPD and DOTI, especially if ultimately we believe that an encroachment permit was required within DOTI, uh, which would cause sometimes multiple people to look at the same thing.

Um we have work to just leverage the existing encroachment process rather than having an outdoor places program permit and then a separate encroachment permit, and now all lives under the encroachment permit process.

Um there's no annual renewals and kind of an annual application process that's associated with encroachments so it's simpler again for our customers, they are in perpetuity until that permit is removed.

We've been working out DCPD to communicate with those permit holders on those that have active ones to convert them to approachment permits and we'll use our stuff to really leverage and take on the bulk of that work to make it as easy as possible for them to kind of just like sign it, right?

And not have a lot of uh administrative burden on their end.

Uh we've updated our websites.

Um we've got languages going out in CPD's monthly virtual newsletter pretty eminently.

And then there's this larger design guidelines document that we're gonna work to make some improvements and make that even simpler with DPO support.

So thanks.

All right.

With that, happy to take any questions.

Great.

Well, there's gonna be a few.

So there you thank you again for the presentation.

Um pretty exciting work going on.

Uh let's start with council member Lee, please.

Great, thank you.

Thank you all for the updates.

Um lot of information, definitely.

Uh I'm curious.

I know one thing that continues to come up is talking about um you're getting them out of your queue, but one thing I keep asking is what is the turnaround before getting to that acceptance phase.

And so do you have that figure?

Oh, for intake?

Yes.

Um, yes.

So I think Robert, do you want to talk a little bit about that?

Um get through intake.

Oh, sure.

Yeah.

Um it it depends a little bit.

I mean, it can take several rounds to get through our intake process, um, especially if somebody is a novice to the to the um to our process.

Um, they might submit a set of plans and they forget their signature, or they figure forget to put um the building code reference on the plans.

Um and so it could it can take two, three rounds to get through intake right now, and and every round is a is a two-day cycle.

So it takes us two days to get to get to the review.

Um we uh send the customer comments of what is deficient, um, then it takes them however long to uh um to resolve that on the plan that they submit to us is another two days.

Um and you get it, you can see where I'm going and so on and so on.

Um, but on average it's um a little less than two, I think, if you look at it across the board.

Um, and that just means you know, some are going much much greater than that or and some are less.

So our goal is to uh is to really reduce that um down.

Um so uh 80% of our uh of our total um intake submittals are getting accepted on the first round.

Um and that would be um an incredible win for the city, um, or at least uh projects that are using the tool to to submit their project for because the tool should identify all those deficiencies up front for our customer.

Um so they can Is this the comply AI?

Yeah, it's the comply AI, the or DBA CIV check.

Um we've been calling it SIP check um internally.

Um but yeah, it'll it'll identify all the all the deficiencies with intake um uh service that to the customer, and then they can then resolve it right away.

Um they don't need to wait two days.

Um, they get the information uh and the deficiencies uh right there to resolve.

They update their plans, resubmit to the tool, the tool says you're good, and then click submit and it pushes it to our e-permit portal.

That's great.

Um, but overall, from like submitting to getting your plans approved, how many reviews are we talking about?

Sure.

Um, I think I'll circle back with exact data, but I think when we last looked and it depends by project type, we were seeing um what we consider a main commercial.

So think uh a large tenant finish over one and a half million dollars in valuation or a brand new building.

It's taking, I think, at least two reviews on average per task to get approval.

So some of that again is higher, some is lower.

But I can follow up with specifics by project type.

Can you say per task?

Is that like so architectural review, for example, it's two rounds of review, structural two rounds of review, um, etc.

So depending on which reviews are required for that project scope, we're seeing at least two rounds.

Okay.

I would be interested in seeing that um information in the future as we talk about review times and being on time is how many times are we having to review?

And then the percentages are also obviously very impressive, but one question I have that would influence those times is how many applications are we getting compared to in years past.

And so I think that data would be helpful as well.

Um, and percentage of how many applications is my question.

So I don't know if you have that information, but I would like to see the number of applications.

Sure.

Um, so volume, you know, is I would say down, but not significantly.

It kind of varies depending on project type.

So we generally average for permit applications somewhere in the neighborhood of around a thousand a month.

Um sometimes it's a little lower, eight hundred, nine hundred, sometimes it's a little higher, but I can definitely share some specific volume information um with everyone um to show you that.

Yeah, I think that would be helpful.

Just like as a percentage, um thinking about capacity that we have to review these goes way up if we have many much less applications and I know applications have been trending down and I'm curious how we're doing on that.

I think a number that would be very helpful is to know how many permits did we approve um, you know, in twenty twenty five that were for single family that were for ADUs that were for multifamily and then how quickly we had them.

I think this data probably makes a lot of sense to you all that work on this in a daily basis, but from the outside perspective, seeing those tangible numbers of approved housing units that we are uh potentially building it would be very helpful.

Um that's all I would also add in addition to um Jill's thoughts that um while we have seen the volume of projects trending down over the years, um we have also seen um significant reduction in resources, um, especially after last year and and coming into to this year.

So from a ratio perspective, um we do not have um large amounts of residual capacity because the resources that we had in past years no longer exist.

So we're still relatively balanced in terms of the number of projects that employees need to complete, even though the total number of projects is lower.

And project that's interesting.

And and that's not exactly what I'm trying to get at.

What I'm trying to get at more is just are our percentages improving because we don't have as many applications and how can we measure that piece of wow.

Yeah, and I I would say I mean a couple things.

The project types we're seeing, so it's less brand new construction, much more remodels, tend to finish type work, and that's been trending that way since I want to say 2024.

Um, and then uh, but we can certainly provide some specific volume information, and then I would just highlight we have a number of initiatives, which you talked about that have taken work off staff's plate.

Um to remove things that they were looking at previously, like the residential interim quick permit and the one and done concept site plan, so that we have more bandwidth to focus on other things because we were spending time on some things that we found other ways to try to deal with that.

That's great.

I appreciate that efficiency.

And then the other thing is I quickly Googled like smart start for restaurants.

The residential one wouldn't come up when I searched it.

Smart start did, and uh I went to go to Spanish on the pay on the pay on the city website and not the language did not turn to Spanish.

And so I would just elevate um wanting to have those these documents available in all the languages that the city website is, and when you click on the document, it also goes to an English document.

So even though even the title of the document says this is gonna help you open a restaurant and it says it in Spanish, when you click on it, it goes to a completely English document.

So I think that um always think about I have a lot of Vietnamese and Spanish speaking constituents that are in the restaurant business that own houses that want to be able to access this information, so wanted elevate.

Yeah, I really appreciate that feedback when we tested it and did translate appropriately.

So um let me go back and double check that and just make sure it's working.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, committee chair.

Thank you.

Um council president Sandoval.

Thank you.

Um when you were giving the update on the restaurant and the quick start restaurant, I can't remember the exact name.

Did you look at the report from Dito?

And did are they matching or is it did do you all address the report that was issued by the guy from who's I can't remember the whole time?

Yes.

Yeah, so the the restaurant industry report we've been working in close partnership with Dito.

And so a number of the initiatives were kind of either already underway or have sent.

So Grease Interceptor certainly had come up, the ability to get some better information up front on what's gonna be required.

So that's the start smart tool.

We're also working right now partnering with DLCP licensing and consumer protection on creating some upfront education materials for people that's who submit for a new license application to let them know some things they should do in advance, like pull permit history, um, have a conversation to see if a change in use or occupancy is needed.

So those are some various things that we're working on that were specific recommendations in the report.

That's awesome, because that's what I when we got the report back, there was one thing that council councils um wheelhouse and but 90% of the report was actually the administration.

So I was hoping that the administration would address that.

So I really appreciate that.

One thing I haven't I haven't gone on the restaurant toolkit.

Does it talk about a hood?

So as I'm working on for for the downtown development authority, we're wanting to get restaurants down there.

And one of the things that are creating hiccups are when you have a big stove and you have to put the hood and you have to put the air vent and you have to do the all the things, right?

I mean, I I know it because I had to live it at La Casita and we didn't realize when you put that in that you have to have the fire and the suppression, and then you have to get the things cleaned out, and I'm not using very articulate language today.

I'm a little tired, sorry.

Um, but the filtration system.

Do you all get into that nitty gritty or no?

Um for the the the discovery tool, we just highlight the potential to um to need those to for those items to be reviewed by the fire department.

And so we do ask a question do you have a hood?

Okay.

Um so it it brings it up for the customer to start thinking about those things.

Um but to provide those more technical details, and they yeah, we would need um them to submit something so we can provide you know comments.

Okay.

Um but if they I would say that said if they do have questions, um they should absolutely you know try to reach out to us um in the city and we can facilitate a meeting with fire or the mechanical team um to address any of those questions before they go down that road.

Okay, and for the I always called it a grease trap.

Would you call it an oil scepter?

Grease and scepter eye calling it so those are really challenging, and oftentimes when they're not maintenance, you can walk by a restaurant and you can smell it.

We're like, what's that smell?

I coming from the restaurant industry, I'm like, oh, they their grease trap is not great.

So Grease and Scepter, I'll start using that term.

Um, say I was a customer and I was taking over one, right?

It's usually the taking over one, and because it's the it's been a bad actor, exactly, and you don't know it's been a bad actor until you start wanting to start a restaurant, and then you're like, Oh my gosh, this is there help for restaurants like that because then that's another one that I have gotten concerns about that that's super complicated.

Yeah, yeah.

So um say uh it's maybe twofold.

So one in uh for restaurants where they are able to demonstrate if the city has the records that they have maintained and regularly.

Um we are we are working to make it much smoother and perhaps not even require an inspection to take place.

Um which in the past we didn't do that, we had an inspection for every transition, yeah.

And so again, trying to make it easier.

Like if we have the data to suggest that this has been a good actor, and and we we don't have any data to suggest that the system is flawed, right?

It's not been maintained, then we're working to make it smoother and faster for them, right?

Those those restaurants.

Um for those where uh they perhaps have not always been great actors.

Uh, we are working with uh Jill mentioned DLCP to try to get a better sense of how we can connect the needs that we have within Dodding with the annual kind of licensure processes that they handle, right?

So just really coordinated in that way, so that all the data that we need for dining, we get it all at one time at that annual knowledge.

Right, that's super smart.

Um, and thank you for adding the tool for all the financing.

That's something that I had heard from the developers.

They s they even though the tools there, they still don't know how to use it.

Um, and once we can get people trained how to pull down those prop one, two, three dollars.

I think we can see some um more buildings, hopefully, and also the infrastructure like there they are all these TOD dollars, there's all these dollars from the state in the over the last couple years that were created.

How do you get to them?

I think is like if if someone could come up with a class, I'd be like that's a business model, they could be like, here, here's your how-to, um, so that we could start building those capital stacks.

But thank you for the first step.

I've sent that to four or five developers recently.

They didn't even know it existed, and I was like, tell your friends, put this on your website, tell your friends, tell everybody because that was something that I know I had asked.

Um, so I do really appreciate doing it.

And one call I have they pulled it up when I was sitting there and they were like, we didn't even know something like this existed.

And I said, download it, sure.

You know, I'm getting crazy because building those capital stocks right now in such a high interest rate um uh market right now, it's so complicated to get these deals to closing.

I have one on 29th and Zunai that the whole entire residents in came down, and now they're stalled, and now they're trying to say it's because of expanding housing affordability.

And I'm like, is it really or is it really the market conditions?

I don't think EHA is really messing you up that much.

Go you can go up to seven stripes, but that's me.

I'm not trying to make millions of dollars off of a performa.

Um, but thank you for this permitting office.

It always had been the vein of constituent services, getting those.

Hey, I've been in the queue for over 300 days.

So thank you for getting those up and being just more responsive.

And I think that 180 day and the coordination between all of you, I just want to say is something that's really phenomenal.

I haven't seen this type of coordination between city agencies moving so effortlessly.

And it's a really good model for other city agencies to not work in silos so that we can actually get what we're I always tell my staff.

Remember, the person on the other side of the phone is paying our salaries.

So that's we're in the really the business of customer service.

And they might be the me.

I grew up in a restaurant, so I always had to have customer service.

One person we kicked out of our restaurant.

Um and you can't do that in the city.

So thank you for having the idea of customer service and testing this pilot program.

I think that's another thing that I haven't seen in the city do very well is we just roll things out.

We're really good with rolling them out, but we're not really good with saying, hey, let's test this with our high end users, see if it works, and then actually roll it out and adjust it accordingly before you roll it out.

So just want to say bravo.

I would I'm so proud of your all of you, all the hard work that all of you are doing, um, and really the team effort.

It's really nice to see.

Thank you, Max.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um next in queue is uh council member Torres.

Thank you so much.

Um thanks everybody.

Quick question on uh a heart and um go to my notes.

For those that you mentioned where the timing might be too fast, are they not seeking Prop 123?

And then those that are participating, are they all seeking Prop 123?

Like what's the composition of the two groups?

Yeah, so we actually haven't had anybody opt out yet.

So if they've been eligible, they they've been in.

I think the what we're typically seeing is that projects aren't moving past that first round of concept plan unless they're really sure they want to proceed at risk or they've been funded.

Because at that point, we we do expect that they're putting some money into the project and are developing their plans at that point rather than a classic concept plan, which is more kind of throwing things at the wall and a feasibility study.

Um so we haven't had anybody opt out yet, but I will say like projects that are moving forward are typically the projects that are funded.

Um and I think it's sort of a mixed bag in turn in terms of funding, but primarily the projects that have been moving forward through the process are those LITEC low-income housing tax credit projects that are funded by CHAPA.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you.

Um maybe several of you have an opinion on this.

One of the things that um has been raised a number of times is having pre-approved plans uh for certain things and whether or not that's something that um uh CBD would be amenable to able to implement.

I think it first came up with ADUs, um, but it's starting to come up as the unlocking housing choices comes forward, and whether or not for um, you know, say an urban edge uh single family property that might be 6,000 square feet, um, uh what a tri uh plan would look like that could be pre-approved or a quad plan that could be pre-approved under kind of the regulations.

And I'm thinking in my audience in mind, I feel like developers have teams lined up that prepare that, but the average resident property owner, homeowner doesn't.

So, what are tools that they can use?

So just wondering if that's something you were already thinking about or is is possible.

So I'm not just trying to invers in the vagal.

Um, I think we've been looking at different models across the country of places that are doing it and different approaches.

Um, and so I think it's always been sort of in the back of our mind as to something to figure out.

It's not an easy thing to figure out, and so I think um we continue to just do a lot of research and understand what has worked elsewhere.

So Seattle is one example I can think of.

Their approach was essentially to just they have a website of projects or not projects plans and things that you can go through and then work with that they have um pre-approved in some way through the building department.

There's different models in place across the country, so I think um it's it's a matter of sort of figuring out what may make sense, liability and working through those issues that generally often comes up as a concern.

Um, but uh I was just on a call last week with a company who's working with LA County, and they've done some interesting things since the fire is out there and things that they are looking at um that I was actually gonna bring up to our unlocking housing choice team as an option to consider.

So I think it's definitely on our list, and right now we're just continuing to still kind of do some research, but Eric, please try to.

Yeah, I mean, uh San Jose, California, Maricopa County.

Um we've we've talked with a number of entities over the months and years.

I mean, this certainly isn't a new topic.

Um, and you know, even locally having some conversations um to invite some external partners um to not only talk but work with us to present some ideas um as a as an agency.

Um we can't we cannot be like the design professional um to create and sign and seal the documents and then make them available.

Um but we have processes in place that can afford a relatively rapid uh opportunity.

Um it's under something called a type approved program today, which isn't necessarily identical to this uh you know concept, um, but it's not you know it's not too far off, and so um molding that or recreating it is is as Jill mentioned, you know, something that we'll continue to I think circle back on.

Um I would say we need some furthering of the conversation with the private sector so that we can actually get these things on the books, and then the community will have the opportunity to use them.

We we kind of run into some similar roadblocks that we'll need to find a ways around.

I'd love to figure out what that looks like, even if it's programmatic, but certainly if it's policy level.

Um, because it you know, you UHC is gonna be trying to come through maybe before the end of the year.

Um, and um this is one of those ideas that's kind of in my list of anti-displacement um opportunities for property owners in place because I feel like the conversation's entirely built around what is the development community want.

Um I'm I'm really interested in what am I what options do my residents have right now?

So um that's I think I'd love to figure out where you where you go with that.

Um my only other random question was um the power deck, power the slide deck, there's three slide decks of the same are they the same or are they different?

So these edit slides is the lesson.

I'm gonna make sure I'm not missing something in the later news.

No, it was um just fixing little errors that I found.

Um this is what happens when there's group editing, and I messed up at the end of my apologies.

It's all the same, it's just fixing little errors.

So thank you all.

Thank you.

Great.

Um next one is uh council member Sawyer.

Thank you, madam chair.

Thanks, you guys.

Um I really appreciate this.

I will just say, sorry, Darion, I so appreciate all the changes that Dottie has made, but there are two things that are still being identified as major challenges.

The first one is vacations, and the second is tier three encroachments.

Um the reason for that is because they take so long.

And because uh they are siloed and agencies are not talking to each other.

So for example, we have a very angry kind of mean homeowner who verbally abused me in office hours last week um over his tier three encroachments that the RNO denied, the council office denied, um Dottie denied, um, several other agencies denied, but you know who didn't deny it?

Um forestry who made them do all the changes that everyone else denied.

So what we're seeing is I think this is a very specific example, but it's it happens a lot, right?

Where we end up as a council office being the quarterback for a tier three encroachment because we're setting up meetings with six different city agencies that have all told this homeowner different things.

And um, where it leads us is to a situation where they are told no, which they are not happy about.

Um then there's like who wins, right?

Who's the which agency's advice or statement is the the one that is the right one because they're conflicting.

So I just want to flag that for you because it is uh this guy has been waiting since April.

Yep.

It's July, and I'm not even getting those meetings scheduled yet to be able to get them an answer by August.

So like as much as you guys have put in so much work to shorten these times, like then something like this happens with a tier three encroachment, and then it goes back to being six months, right?

And they're given a time limit that they've got to get through, and their time limit doesn't work for me, and you know, all the things.

It's just so I just want to flag that for you because I feel like that is a process that has to be addressed in some way.

I don't know how to how to do it right.

Yeah.

Um, but I just wanted to flag that for you because you guys have done such great work and made such great strides um for you know most things, but like this one is when this is the third one we've run into in my office that has taken months and months and months to unwind and pick winners and find compromises and all the things.

Um so if there's any way, so that's the tier three encroachment piece.

The um the vacation piece, I don't know what's going on on the back end.

They just take forever.

We lost two what ends up totaling over 500 units in district five because they lost their financing because they sat around and waited so long for their vacations that through Dottie that they um paid so much in interest every month that finally their pro forma failed and they just walked away from the development.

It happened twice.

So um I don't know how we do that faster, but we have to do that faster too, in turn when we're talking about all of these other processes that we've made these improvements on.

So thank you.

That was not to like target you and criticize you in any way, but those are I would say the two things that we've come across that we still see like major challenges with.

Do we have the time to speak to it tonight?

A few minutes, yes.

Okay.

Um thanks for raising both of those.

Uh on vacation specifically, uh specifically with Prop 123, we're all working to figure out okay, what happens if you have an affordable housing project that has a vacation that's got to get done within this 90-day time frame.

So we are testing out different models.

We tried out a pilot actually for the first time uh with the National Women's Soccer League for vacation we need to do there, where we ran some processes in parallel, where instead of it being like kind of sequential, like it normally would be of like a technical review and a public review, we try to process where they run kind of in parallel at the same time.

And so we're trying out different models uh to see how we shrink in the time frame.

And then what I'm hearing you say, I think on both let's say the vacations and the encroachments is there still is a gap uh when it comes to kind of facilitation, right?

Of like how do we resolve the review comments?

Because you're right.

Right now it is it's kind of like a self-serve model where we say, Here are all the concerns, go resolve them, then come back, right?

Um we don't take on much ownership in those being resolved, and uh and some of it is just capacity.

Daddy doesn't have capacity or staff to then be the broker to resolve all of these, right?

Um I guess I can't say I have an answer right now, but I I recognize and agree with you that there is a challenge there, and that uh we'll we'll continue to work to see where there's opportunities, I think to just leverage uh our resources.

You know, what came up in my mind is you think about the project champions on the side development plan, right?

We don't is there a way we leverage if there's an accroachment on a side development plan that they serve a similar function.

Um I don't know, but um yeah, this is helpful.

Okay, yeah, I really appreciate it.

If it's something that you guys could look into, and maybe next time you guys come and update us and give us an update, hopefully there's one on those as well.

Because I will just say it the council office cannot be the quarterback for that.

We don't have the expertise in the like minute details, which are the reasons why other city agencies have denied the encroachment, and yet like if you guys aren't talking to each other, not you guys, but you know the separate Sadie City agencies are talking to each other, we find ourselves in this situation where the only one who can like be like we're all getting in a room together and figuring this out is me, and I am not qualified to do that.

I'm not so and also it's not my job.

Right.

Legislative branch of government.

I write the laws.

Um, so I just if there's anything we can do to fix that, that would be no, that's a good flag.

I appreciate it.

There we go.

For sure.

Um thank you, and thank you for the presentation.

Um, you actually answered some of my questions as we were going through.

Um, what I will say is over the last six months, um, where the office would receive a lot of questions and people and they're permitting and and kind of quarterbacking or having to call and Jill, I haven't had to call for a very very long time.

Um it's it feels like just on the receiving end of what of what I'm getting in the council office, um, those have decreased significantly.

So I attribute it hopefully to the new process that's been set up.

Um, and then I knock on wood when we say that and it's gonna continue.

No consent items.

We already did our action item.

This was a briefing.

Thank you all for coming.

Thank you.

It's now adjourned.

Okay.