Welcome back to this biweekly meeting of the South Platte River Committee of Denver City Council.

Join us for the discussion as the South Platte River Committee starts now.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Hi, welcome to South Clock Committee.

Today is August 12th.

We have one agenda item, and uh, but before we move over to that item, let's do introductions.

And I'm Councilwoman Torres, I represent West Denver District 3.

Uh Kevin Flynn, Southwest Denver District 2.

Thank you.

And we've got two members online.

If you'll please introduce yourselves.

Hello, Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4.

Thank you so much.

And pulling up in the nick of time.

Chris Hines, Denver's perfect time.

Excellent, thank you.

We will turn it over to our presenters on the IGA.

And if you wouldn't mind introducing all of yourselves first before you start.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for having us.

My name is Laura Swartz.

I'm the director of communications and administration for the city's Department of Finance.

And I'll let my colleagues introduce themselves.

Packie Simon, I'm an engineering manager in Dottie.

And good afternoon, Laura Wachter, interim deputy CFO and Director of Capital Management and Financing.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

All right.

We are here today to talk about the Santa Fe Yards project.

We are going to go over two legislative actions that are in front of City Council Committee today, as well as give a general project status update and then allow plenty of time for QA and discussion as needed.

We have a full team here in the audience to assist with QA for council members.

The site that we are discussing, the Santa Fe Yards Development Site, is located at the uh just east of Santa Fe Drive and just south of I 25 in City Council District 7.

This is a large centrally located site, which is accessible like by light rail.

You'll see the approximate location of the future women's soccer stadium where the Yellow Star is.

To the east of that is the rail lines, and to the east of that is the RTD station.

And so we'll be discussing today a North Pedestrian bridge that will stretch from the RTD station across the rail to the stadium sites.

The two actions in front of City Council Committee today is the first is to approve a grant agreement with the Colorado Department of Local Affairs for $5.3 million.

This includes $4 million received from the state and a $1.3 million local match from the city.

The second related action is to approve an amendment to the 2025 Intergovernmental Agreement or IGA that exists between the City and County of Denver and the Broadway Station Metropolitan District number one.

The grant agreement, if approved, would allow the city to move forward with design of the North Pedestrian Bridge.

The bridge's approximate location is shown here on the screen by the yellow rectangle, where it would stretch from the RTD station at I-25 in Broadway across the rail to the stadium site to the west.

With the $5.3 million and being able to start design of the bridge, we expect that design will be complete by the end of 2027.

And then contingent on future funding for construction of the bridge.

We expect the bridge to be complete by 2030.

There is significant public support for the North Pedestrian Bridge.

And as you may recall, uh the amendments that were entered into by the city last year on the IGA require the city to fund construction of this pedestrian bridge.

She was instrumental in us receiving the TOSI grant, and we are very grateful for that partnership with City Council on that.

We also were required to make a 1.3 million dollar local match to receive the grant funds.

That money came from underspending on the Betty Cram Bridge that was recently constructed out of the National Western Center.

The TOCI grant itself has a term through December 31st of 2029.

The scope includes design, engineering documents, site work, and foundation.

And it may also include items such as deckings, railings, elevators, or ramps, paneling, wall finishings, paint, signage, and other architectural elements for the project.

Again, this $5.3 million will largely take us through design and potentially start some construction.

It is not the full amount of funding that is needed for the bridge.

Additional construction funding is expected to come from regional mills that already exist at the site, and the city will continue to pursue pursue additional grant applications.

The second action, which is related to this one that is in front of council today, is to consider a second amendment to the 2025 IGA.

The original IGA was executed between the city and the metropolitan district in May of 2025.

That IgA allowed for the purchase of the land and gave the city a future interest in the land if the soccer team is ever to not use it in the future.

The second amendment to the IGA, which was signed on January 1st, 2026, following council action in December of 2025, required the city to provide funding for the North Pedestrian Bridge and also added the city to the TIFF waterfall to allow the city to seek reimbursement for our cost.

The amendment that we are considering today replaces section 4.1 of the IGA in its entirety.