Call to order the um Erie Town Council meeting on November 4th, 2025.

This is special meeting, essentially we're replacing our meeting next week on the 11th, which will be canceled because of Veterans Day.

All right, with that, will you please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?

I pledge allegiance to the fly of the United States.

All right, well, the town clerk please take roll.

Councilmember Mortalero.

Here.

Councilmember Passamarelli.

Council Member Bear.

Present.

Uh Mayor Moore?

Here.

Uh Council Member Hoback?

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Bell.

Here.

And Council Member O'Connor.

Present.

Mayor you have Quorum.

All right, wonderful.

Um, do we have a motion to approve the agenda?

So we have a motion and second.

All right.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no.

All right.

Motion carries.

Um we have a quite a few items on the consent agenda, so bear with me as I go through those.

Uh the first item is twenty-five five four Native American Heritage Month Proclamation sponsored by Councilmember Emily Bear.

Second item is twenty-five five six, a veterans uh day proclamation, sponsored by Councilmember John Martillero.

Next item is twenty-five five seventy-four resolution of the town council town of Erie appointing the uh as most laws firm PC as the town prosecutor, December first, twenty twenty-five, and approve approving the associated professional services agreement.

A resolution of the town council of the town of Erie appointing Brina Meng as the town Erie Town Attorney as of December first, twenty twenty-five, and approving the associated employment agreement.

A resolution of the town council, town of Erie approving the seventh amendment to the agreement for the final design, right-of-way acquisition and construction of drainage and flood control improvements for the for the Coal Creek from County Line Road to Kenosha Road with the urban drainage and flood control district, DBA Mile High Flood District.

Next item is 25544, a resolution of the town council of town area approving a professional services agreement for northwater treatment facility depot injection design with new IPT Incorporated.

A few more hang on here.

Next item is 2529, a resolution of the town council of the town of URI approving a professional services agreement with WSB LLC for the I-25 interchange multimodal study.

Item 25567, a resolution of the town council of town of URI approving an intergovernmental agreement with the city and county of Broomfield to share costs for the preliminary and environmental engineering design of Colorado Highway 7.

Next item is 25580, a resolution of the town council of town early certifying that money received from the state peace officer training and support fund will be used for a permissible purpose.

Item 259593, a resolution of the town council of the town early approving a first amendment to the construction contract with AM renovations, LLC DBA Heritage Window Restoration for the Rehabilitation of the Schofield Barn.

Item 25504, an ordinance of the town council town of URI approving the purchase of real property from TI residential LLC and approving the associated purchase and sale agreement.

And the last item on the consent agenda tonight is item 25588, a resolution of the town council town area approving a seventh amendment to the lease agreement with vector error management LLC.

All right, do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

So moved.

Second.

All right, motion second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed, say no.

All right.

We have an agreement.

And we'll move right on to public comment.

And I'll see if anybody is signed up to speak tonight.

I don't have anybody signed up in person.

Let me look online.

And nobody online either.

I'm sorry, no one.

Nobody.

Nope.

All right.

And I'm going to pause just for a second because Brien is in the audience tonight, who's our new attorney.

So I don't know if you just want to wave and but welcome.

And uh I'm glad we um are to the point of bringing you on board.

So we'll see you in December.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate her.

All right.

All right, let's go on to general business.

Uh the first item is 25586, uh municipal court and town prosecutor annual update.

Good evening.

Um, I'll start with uh introductions.

I'm Amanda Gallage, I met you all.

Um, and I believe you guys have met Danielle.

Uh she's our court administrator.

I don't know if you've had the opportunity to make Katie Ramirez or deputy courtman.

Please use the microphone.

Oh, I'm sorry, yeah.

There you go.

Doesn't pick.

Sorry.

Um, has everybody met has have you met Katie Ramirez yet?

I don't think so.

Okay, so she's our deputy court administrator, and then Christy Osmus, which is our town prosecutor.

All right.

Welcome.

All right.

So me, um, as you all know, you appointed me in April of 2025.

I'm also the town's liquor licensing authority.

I've had one hearing.

Um, and then just kind of a little background on me.

I'm currently the Colorado Municipal Judge Association's president.

Um, the way that works is the track right now is if you get appointed to be an officer, you move through Secretary, Treasurer, Vice President, President.

So I am coming towards the end of my term in April.

Um, but it's been um great being a part of the organization and being in that uh officer track.

And then our current approved judge is David Thrower.

He is also um a municipal judge and several other uh municipalities throughout the metro area and actually South Denver now.

Um, but because he's the only one, I think it's dangerous because usually when I need an assistant judge or somebody cover for me, it's because of an emergency.

And if you only have one person on your list in an emergency, it's often that they can't cover for you.

Um, so I have found that having a list of five to ten is actually better because I have definitely worked my way through 15 judges when um I've had a funeral I need to attend to or uh an emergency come up.

So um Danielle and I will work on that and get that to you sometime in 2026.

Um and then I'm gonna hand off to Danielle now.

Yeah, so we just wanted to let you know a little bit about what Katie and I are working on.

Um so on our daily tasks, we actually only have court two days a month.

So obviously we're preparing our docket for that day to scheduling things like that.

But then we're helping our um customers, so we have a public facing window.

We'll be moving in over here.

Um we'll be starting there December 1st.

So we're helping our court customers, um, we are maintain all the court records, so criminal justice records requests all come through us, and then any court orders that the judge issues.

We have a kind of unique role in the smaller municipal court like ours, where we are administrative assistants to the judge, and then we're also sort of a legal assistant to the prosecutor as well.

We handle a lot of their administrative tasks, such as issuing subpoenas, preparing for trial, um things like that.

So we kind of do both of those roles, and then um issuing warrants and things like that.

That all those different things that come with uh processing the judge's orders.

Uh Katie and I are also really interested in professional development, and we wanted to let you know about that.

We're very involved in the Colorado Association for Municipal Court Administration, CAMPCA, and so there's trainings, things like that that we do, and then we both um are also working on a professional certification.

I just earned mine in September, so I'm a certified court manager, and that's through the um national, it's the Institute for Court Management, which is a national organization, and Katie is working on hers as well.

So we wanted you all to know about that.

Cool.

And then kind of going off of that as well, some other things that we're doing.

Um, Katie, myself, and the judge are really involved in a lot of organizations throughout the state.

So we talked about um CAMCA, the Association for Municipal Court Administration.

So I am actually the secretary of that organization, so I do trainings and I work with other courts.

We actually have a developed a pretty good name for ourselves, Katie and I.

We've had three different courts come to visit us to see how we do things.

So we've had uh it was Firestone, Castle Rock, and then Mead have come to kind of see how we do things and talk to us about our processes, so we're really proud of that.

And then the Colorado Municipal League, I'm a member, and then I also with CAMCA, we did a presentation on municipal courts at the annual conference this year uh CML.

So that was really exciting for me too.

And then I also volunteer with the Colorado Access to Justice Commission, and so that is a big organization that deals mostly with civil law, but it's really is about making sure that everyone has equal access to justice, it's really about um litigants who are representing themselves and making sure they have the same access to justice.

So I've learned a lot working with them too.

And then just to expand on what I've done for CMJA, um, I uh recently with the support of the CMJ started an education committee, which the organization didn't have, um and that's been very exciting to get um new trainings into practice.

We're putting into practice lunch and learns.

I coordinated our last two conferences.

Um I really appreciate the organization and I'm really glad to be um involved in it.

It puts keeps me in touch with the municipal judges across the state of Colorado.

So um from Durango to Fort Collins uh to Grand Junction, so I think it's really important to have that kind of support when you work as a part-time independent municipal judge, and then although the 17th I want to share with you that I'm on the 17th judicial 17th judicial districts criminal justice coordinating council or the CJCC, and I'm a representative there as the municipal court representative for federal heights where I'm also um the serving judge, but I wanted to share that with you because it actually benefits Erie because I'm also connected with Adams County because I see what Adams County is doing, what their programs are doing, and I can use that here or share our connections there because we're not too far away from Adams County, and I think it's an important organization to be a part of.

Um so the CJCC is um an independent advisory body within Adams County and Brainfield County, and the purpose is to address systematic criminal justice issues informed by evidence-based practices and guided by outcome-driven decision making.

Currently, it's housed out of the district attorney's office in the 17th.

Um, they just were the council just hired a new director.

Um, and it's really it's kind of leaders in the criminal justice system.

So the the elected district attorney, a public defender, um, the sheriffs, um, the Adams County Sheriff, the chief judge of Adams County, um, the chief of probation, county commissioners, behavioral health, community corrections, victims representatives.

Um, so it's a wide variety of people that you get it put in contact with through the criminal justice system, which I think um benefits us here in Erie as well as um obviously my role in federal heights.

In addition to the judge and Danielle and I, the court staff, we have additional uh roles that play a part in operating the court system.

Um please speak into the microphone.

Um any defendant that comes into front of the court as the constitutional right to be represented by counsel.

Um so if they are indigenous, they uh can be appointed.

Please speak into the microphone.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Um attorney can be appointed to their case, and that goes through an application process that the judge will approve.

Uh once the uh defendant goes through that process, we go through OADC, which is the um office of the alternate defense counsel municipal court program, so we can refer to that list of qualified attorneys to represent them in their case.

Um and then in addition, we um follow the chief justice directives for um any payment, and that comes out of our municipal court budget.

And then uh lastly, of course, we um just heard earlier this evening that you approved the contract for the Osmith Law Firm.

Um so we have been working with the Osmith Law firm for the past few years, and um, we look forward to continuing that relationship with that law firm.

So with that, I'll go ahead and pass that over to Mrs.

Osmith.

Oh gosh.

Well, I don't have anything flashy.

I'm not gonna give you a list of anything that I belong to.

So I feel like I've not been invited here just because I've just watched this.

So we've served with Kendra's firm for I think the last four or five years up here.

So um appreciate that relationship and the opportunity to be your prosecutors, and um now we have a contract um to continue on, so very excited about that.

Um our firm is semi-unique because we provide um contract prosecution to a number of places, um, and a lot of people don't do that.

So um a little bit about me.

I've been a prosecutor my entire adult career, which as you can tell, it's been a really long time.

Uh I started at the DA's office in the 18th, uh, spent nine years there, took some time off to raise my kids, um, because I was literally dying, and I had to make a decision, and then came back and started doing municipal prosecution.

So uh it's kind of a passion.

Um, I thoroughly enjoy it.

Um we love working up here.

Um, you have an exceptional team.

Um, and the addition of the judge makes it even more exceptional.

So I worked with her for many years in North Glen.

Um, and um I was her first prosecutor when she came on the bench as a judge.

So uh we've we've been through our growing pains.

Um, and uh we have a very collaborative professional working relationship.

So we was very excited um when she got the presiding up here.

And you probably know, but um, these two ladies are exceptional at what they do, they make everybody's job easy.

So you have a magnificent court that runs um light clockwork, and a lot of the people who come to observe are actually my clients, and I send them up here to watch what happens so that they can learn how to actually run a court.

So um, I don't I'm happy to answer any questions, but appreciate the opportunity to serve um another year here, and um you know, we'll do the best we can to make sure everybody's rights are protected, um, that we do things efficiently and um that we put the best uh foot forward for the town.

Excellent.

All right.

So we have some more statistics for you and just kind of looking forward.

Um, but if you have if anyone has any questions for Chrissy before we finish up.

Um I have a general question.

Um, we've spent the last year uh working with the chief and um understanding the um uh the need for growing our police services.

So it feels like there's a corollary to the judicial services.

So we meet uh twice a month.

Is that what I okay?

And do you see that growing like in 2026 where you have to go to three days or how does that work?

So actually, Christy and I, as she talked about, we worked together in North Glenn and we had a significant increase in in tickets.

And so um Christie was basically was like, we can't keep going, we're working through lunch, we're working after hours, we're not giving good service.

And so um we we looked at the data, we looked at the numbers, and we added a half court day in North Glenn.

Um I recently did that in Lafayette, and so I I would think we would take the same approach.

You know, Christy is she's usually gonna be the one that feels it first because she's meeting with people, and then next, Danielle and Katie feel it as our processing tickets and loading them, and then we'll work collaborative collaboratively to add in a day if we need it.

I think the approach we took in North Clinton and Lafayette by starting with a half docket makes the most sense because it's a responsible use of resources.

So do you see that happening in 2026, 2027?

Hard to tell at this point.

I think this next slide will be helpful.

Just so you can kind of see what our growth has been.

Yeah, so um we can look in 2024, we received 873 tickets, and then in 2025, as of October 1, 816.

Um, excuse me, as of today, we're actually at 935.

So we have already surpassed 2024's numbers with two months to go.

Um, I will say I I absolutely don't see that for 2026, um, likely not even for 2027.

Um, I think that there's room in our docket for us to add additional, and then one thing too is that even if the police department are writing, let's say more traffic tickets, not all of those are coming to court.

So some of those are paying ahead of time.

Um so those that's a minimal impact on our workload.

Um, so at this time, I I don't see that for the next couple of years.

Okay.

Yeah.

Let me see if there's other questions from council.

I think we're good.

Okay.

Yeah, so just a couple other statistics, um, just kind of showing you the work that we're doing.

Uh obviously the number of citations that come in we don't control, um, but that just kind of shows our great relationship with the police department that they trust us to handle these cases.

They're not sending all their cases to the county courts, they're they're sending a lot of their cases to the municipal court, and then um the number of cases that were issued in 2025 that are actively in collections, there's only six.

So that just shows our processes, they're working, and people are coming to court, people are making their payments, we do a lot of reminders, and those people do respond to that, and then we also only have five cases that were issued in 2025 that currently have an active warrant.

So we don't have a ton of warrants out there.

Um, we really have a lot of people coming to court and doing what they need to do, and so that's really positive for us, and also positively impacts our workload.

That's you know, people aren't coming, that is adding on to our workload.

And then our largest docket was um 67 cases.

So that just kind of shows we had 67 people come through our door on one day.

That was the largest docket.

That was actually, I believe October 20th.

Uh so we just had that one.

So that's how many people are gonna be coming through these doors on Mondays uh starting December 1st.

So we are busy.

Um, we had three trials so far in 2025, and then our case closure rate is over 100%.

And how we get to that is we take the number of cases that have been filed, and then we divide it by the number of cases that we've closed, and that gives us so it we have over 100% because we're closing older cases.

So not only are we keeping up with closing the number of cases that are coming in, we're even getting rid of older cases.

So that just shows a lot of courts sometimes struggle with like a backlog or something like that, and that's not the case here.

Um, we are keeping up and more than keeping up, we're closing out old cases.

And then we just want to kind of give you uh an idea of what happened in 2025 and what we're looking forward to in 2026.

Um, so I'm the new judge, so I would I'm here.

Um, and then something that changed when I got here uh is allowing defendants to appear by Zoom.

Uh so people who live out of state or may have health issues, I allow them to appear virtually um by request.

Um, I think it's it's the way that things have changed, and I think it's an important part of being able to get cases moving forward and having uh compliance.

Um the move to town hall has obviously been a huge undertaking.

Katie and I have found out how difficult it is and what the details are included in moving a public-facing municipal court to a whole new location.

Um so it's been very challenging, and we're really excited to finish that up.

Um, and again, we'll start it being in this building December 1st.

So we're really excited.

I feel like we've done a good job of getting the word out to our customers.

Um, so I'm hoping that that's a smooth transition.

And then we've just been doing a lot of procedural updates since we've had the judge.

We've done a lot of meetings with stakeholders with the judge as well, um, meeting with the town prosecutor, um, the planning department.

We've been meeting a lot with the um the chief and command staff, and that's all been going really, really well.

We again collaborate very well with each other.

And then um looking forward from today, we have two jury trials scheduled.

Uh so we have one scheduled for December 29th and one for January 29th.

Um, we when we move into this building, we will start um, or I'm skipping, sorry, going to her.

We are going to begin live streaming our court session.

So um there is a requirement of us to be live streaming our um criminal court dockets, and we just didn't have the technology or the staffing previously at our old building to make that happen.

Um, and so we will be starting that in January.

So our criminal dockets will be live streamed, similar to how you all live stream your council meetings.

And then one of uh my goals is to do a customer satisfaction survey for 2026.

And so how I think you measure is by looking at procedural fairness factor.

So did the did the defendant uh or court participant feel respected?

Did they feel like they had a voice?

Did they feel like it was a neutral process to start and did they have understanding?

So we want to make sure that in every step of the process from receiving their ticket to um checking in to meeting with Ms.

Osmus to coming to the courtroom and leaving.

Did they feel like they were heard?

They understood a lot of people are gonna leave our court not feeling like they got what they wanted, but it's important that they at least understood the process.

And so that's what the customer satisfaction survey would focus on.

And then lastly, we are moving towards paperless operations.

We've been working a lot on that in 2025, and we hope to continue that in 2026.

I'm just working out all of our processes and um get rid of our paper files.

Now we're really done so I do have one more question.

So I didn't realize we had jury trials.

How do you get your jurors?

I think we use the jury wheel.

Yeah, so we actually um we do an uh intergovernmental agreement with the state, and they give us their um jury list and they pull it from voter registration, um, driver's licenses, things like that.

So the state courts use this list, and then they narrow it down to just Erie residents, and then we get that.

Okay.

And so and the standard for a jury trial is three jurors.

Um so if we have uh three jurors, we'll probably call in 24 to 30.

Um, and then usually you'll have about 80% of those people show up.

Um if a person requests six, so you can request three to six.

If they have six, then we'll increase the amount.

Um so I I've been a municipal judge since 2019, and I've done a handful of jury trials.

And so far, knock on wood, I've I've always had enough jurors.

I haven't had an issue with that.

And Danielle, uh luckily, Danielle and Katie both came from Westminster, which had a lot of jury trials.

So they're they're excellent makeshift jury commissioners with a lot of experience.

And then, as you know, Miss Osmus also has many years of experience with jury trials.

So even though they'll be the first for us, you have a pretty seasoned team, so we'll be okay.

All right, sounds good.

I can't imagine we have more than a handful at most of jury trials a year, or we have not had a jury trial since 2016.

Okay, so less than a handful.

Thank you.

So is a jury trial requested by the defendant?

Is that the way that works?

It has to be requested in writing within 21 days of their arraignment, and then you can pay a 25 dollar jury demand fee unless they're indigent, and then that can be waived.

Yeah.

And it's only applicable to cases where jail is a possible penalty, so that's why we don't see as many because you can't do it on a speeding ticket.

You can't have uh a jury trial.

So that's why.

Got it.

Okay, go ahead.

Um, regarding the assistant judge and having just one now.

Um you're planning on having a pool of 10 to 15.

How does that work?

How are they compensated if they're needed?

How does it work?

So I would imagine that they will be compensating.

I think Judge Thoreau's paid by the hours.

100 an hour for their contract.

Okay.

Um I will be asking for them to be paid more.

The court appointed attorneys make 100 an hour, and I think it the judge should be paid more than that.

And then I all the judges that I um contract with are all experienced municipal judges throughout the state of Colorado and usually are usually a presiding judge somewhere in their own or retired uh state court judges.

And then it's basically just a first come first serve basis.

Um, just so there's not any kind of favoritism or I mean I I would actually I would go to Judge Thrower first because he's been on the list the longest.

And if he's not available, then I would kind of go out on a first come first serve basis.

So just to be clear, your charter, the town council has to appoint all of them.

All of them, okay.

Yes.

So I'll cut I'll come to you and ask you to approve them.

Okay.

But you are you contracting with them?

You mentioned or it would be the town.

The town would be contracting.

Okay.

Thanks.

Okay, I think we're good.

Thanks for coming out tonight and help and educate us and the public.

Thank you.

Pleasure.

Thank you for having us.

Thank you.

All right, we'll move on to item 25, 584, a public hearing, a resolution of the town council, the town of Erie organizing the URI Sports Business Improvement District, describing its boundaries and service area, establishing the board of directors and approving the 2025-2026 operating plan and budget.

With that, I think I'm going to turn it over to Jack Hill, our business development specialist.

Thank you.

I'm Jack Hill, Business Development Specialist for the Town of Erie Economic Development Department.

I'm joined by Lockie Woods, our URA development accounting analyst, as well as Harry Vrennan, our senior planner in the back, to answer any of the technical and difficult questions.

I'm also joined by Zachary White and Mike Michael Bosma representing the petitioner.

Pretitioner.

Sorry.

So I'm going to go through the staff presentation first and they will then do their presentation right after.

So we're here today to discuss the down air was not work.

The Erie Sports Complex that's located uh just southeast of Bennell and Canaline Road.

So here's a quick overview of the presentation.

We'll go through pretty fairly quick.

So here's kind of where the site is it's 36 acres on a key corridor just caddy corner of the Vellodrome there.

Located in a light industrial zoning so it's got I'm going to pause you just for a second because I didn't officially open the public hearing so let me officially do that.

So we can take it away all over next you're good.

Okay.

So it's officially open.

It's officially opened so here's a different angle at the sports flex.

So it's it's a really unique opportunity to bring um more soccer fields and and just in general sports activities to Erie.

There's three soccer fields proposed as well as I believe four different kind of flex courts in the indoor area as well as set seven different pad sites to the to the to the area.

These can range from you know light industrial flex uses to quick service restaurants, retail, breweries it's it's pretty flexible zoning so it's a great opportunity to bring some new commercial space to town.

The the final the development agreement and final plat were approved this past year December 10th we received a bid petition from the organization and as well as an operating plan this year on September 8th and we set a public hearing date on October 14th and that's what we're doing here today.

So here is the high definition look at the final plat.

Just another look at it here's a a great breakdown of the estimated costs for public improvements for this development this comes straight from the development agreement.

As you can see it's it totals to about 6.1 million dollars in public improvements and so kind of switching gears so you all approved an economic incentive policy back in May and this kind of checks a lot of boxes for that policy.

So this development will attract retail development for sure but what it also offers an opportunity for primary employment talking about especially that that larger pad provides opportunity for more flux industrial spaces is very important as well as destination development I think I touched in that presentation that this corridor has the potential to become a kind of a sports tourism corridor for the for the town ranging from what we have already at the ECC to the Velodrome and now this kind of this new area as well as you know a future hotel.

So it's kind of lining up to be another destination along that corridor and so it it checks a lot of boxes for economic development to catalyze commercial development in the community and we just pulled these bullets directly from the business improvement district act from the state we also believe this development aligns with those bullet points as well I'm not going to read them all off but they're there for your pleasure and here's the nitty gritty this came straight out of the operating plan as well as the finance plan.

The estimated costs like I mentioned earlier 6.1 million the so they the authorized indebtedness for the bid they wanted to have a 25% kind of cushion for for that debt so that's why that's uh 7.6 million the most the the cap for any bid in the state of colorado is is 50 mills for debt service 10 mills for general operations and you know the the the initial bonding you know is projected at 7.6 that's for the the initial improvements but the bonding capacity for this this bid would be as uh as stated 24 25.3 million with the 13.4 million project fund the and we probably mentioned this in the incentive uh uh presentation uh but a bid allows basically the the petitioner to construct um improvements um it would also allow them to convey the land to the soccer club that's um gonna be the kind of the anchor for the site and then as well as sell uh pad sites to new businesses in the community um couple of bullets on the public notice um they delivered uh by first class mail to each property owner within the service area uh on on october 17th

Um the and we probably mentioned this in the incentive uh uh presentation, uh, but a bid allows basically the the petitioner to construct uh improvements.

Um it would also allow them to convey the land to the soccer club that's um gonna be the kind of the anchor for the site, and then as well as sell uh pad sites to new businesses in the community.

Um couple of bullets on the public notice.

Um they delivered uh by first class mail to each property owner within the service area uh on on October 17th, um, as well as published it in Colorado Hometown Weekly.

Um so there was there's that public notice.

Um as I you've probably realized by now, the recommendation from staff is following this public hearing.

Uh we recommend town council to approve resolution 25176, organizing the Erie Sports Business Improvement District, describing its boundaries and service areas, establishing a board of directors, and approving the 2025 and 2026 operation plan and budget.

And with that, unless let's hold off on questions until the presentation one of the questions.

Yeah, I think what we'll do is we'll go through that and then I'll ask for public comment.

Yeah, sure.

Um let me give you just a quick little background.

This was kind of the dream of my business partner, Don Allman, who's on the board of director for what's now called Albion Soccer.

Um for years we've always struggled with um finding facilities, finding marquee facilities that can draw premier tournaments and um athletic opportunities.

And currently they have about 1,800 participants uh that they they serve.

Many of them live and reside in Erie and drive to Boulder every day.

Um as this began to kind of grow.

I have experienced with uh a basketball club that it resides in Erie, and we are currently renting facilities at Aspen Grove, Soaring Heights, um, and the opportunity for facilities just doesn't exist um to grow and to support what the community needs are.

And so we kind of started thinking about this and said this might be a great great opportunity to put something together that combines a lot of different athletic, you know, opportunities for not only the residents of Erie and Boulder and Boulder County and Weld County, but also um a destination where we can bring in teams from other communities, host tournaments, and um the goal would not be to try to you know monopolize that, but really to bring that to Erie.

And with that comes you know, a lot of economic um in opportunities for businesses, um, a lot of notoriety, and it just doesn't really exist anywhere in this northern part of Colorado.

And I think one of the main things for the indoor facilities is that there's a big gap right now where we can only serve about 35 individuals um due to just the constraints of the facilities that are available right now.

And so that really kind of says it's really for the upper end players, and we feel like we need to be able to serve there's a huge opportunity to serve more of the recreational players, the players that just want to go out and play a couple days a week, not five days a week, not travel.

We are not able to offer a women's program, which we used to have, women and girls programming, which I think would be um extremely important, and then from the soccer, you know, we're gonna have notoriety from national teams, and um it'll really be uh uh an asset to Erie.

So with that, I think it kind of gives you a breakdown of what what the goal is, and obviously with that, um, it's our intention as the developer to donate the land to the nonprofit, and um in doing so, we need we're we're looking for some assurances to somehow maybe recoup and make a successful development.

And uh just as you know, we've had a lot of subsidiary um type of businesses interested in incoming chiropractors, physical therapists, um nationally recognized trainers.

Uh so I think it would be something that Erie could be very proud of, and uh we'd appreciate you uh listening to our opportunity.

All right.

Uh my name is Angry Wine.

I am general counsel too.

You can just move the microphone.

Sorry, thanks.

My first time in this new council chambers, it's beautiful.

I missed the basement a little bit though.

You know, I had to walk around behind the dumpsters to get there.

It was great.

I don't think we missed it.

This is beautiful.

You guys have done a good job.

Um I serve as special counsel to uh or general counsel to many special districts, including metropolitan districts here uh in the town.

Uh you just got to hear from real lawyers, the judges and the the prosecutors.

We represent special districts.

And really when we started talking with Michael about this and came and talked to the town, we said we just want to propose a single commercial metropolitan district.

Staff said, no, no, no, no.

We don't want it.

Metro districts, let's let's not do that for this type of project.

The business improvement district model fits a lot better for this type of development.

So business improvement districts, I think there are a few in the town.

But they are uh used in Colorado as a financing tool to help promote business and to finance um public infrastructure uh within the the developments that they serve.

Um in this case, uh as staff has gone through you know some of the nitty-gritty.

Uh the way you organize uh business improvement district is by petition uh from the landowners uh which was filed.

We've filed a petition that meets all the requirements of the statute, uh, which I think you guys found when you uh set the hearing itself.

Um and then the business improvement districts are required to file on an annual basis an operating plan.

So where you may have dealt with metro districts where you see them one time to approve a service plan that includes a number of parameters that restrict and authorize those districts.

Uh business improvement districts come to you on an annual basis.

Uh so what was filed with the petition was a 2025 operating plan, assuming that that you approve the organization, and a 2026 operating plan.

Uh in uh if if we're approved by September 1st of 2026, we'll file a 2027 operating plan where every year you get to look at what is the business improvement district doing.

Is it meeting its purposes?

Uh has it issued debt?

Are we having problems with it?

Are the directors behaving?

All those types of things you get to look at.

Uh it's not just a one stroke of the the brush authorization like uh a metropolitan district might be.

Um so the operating plan includes a a number of items, uh, including what are what are the improvements that the district is intended to fund, uh what is the the taxes that the district is allowed to impose or sources of revenue, uh what's the maximum debt that the district can issue, those types of things are in there, and those get presented again on an annual basis, and we come to you to approve those.

Um at the outset, as referenced, the public infrastructure costs is about 6.1 million dollars.

That includes streets and sidewalks and sewer lines, uh drainage, uh, park and wreck, uh, landscaping, things like that.

There are some off-site improvements as well.

Uh the development is required to participate in a signaled intersection uh there to benefit the the project and the community.

Um costs that make the project rather expensive for the developer, given that a lot of the land is going to be donated away.

Uh so to help pay for that, the improvement district uh is proposed.

Uh we are proposing a 7.6 million dollar debt cap.

The finance plan attached to the service plan or to the operating plan is noted, shows a much higher debt capacity.

Uh we wanted to be a little bit more conservative and say we're not asking for the moon.

We're not asking for authorization to issue 25 million dollars.

We want to be able to cover the costs plus a little cushion.

Um and we can do that.

It's demonstrated in the finance plan that the district could support uh that type of debt at reasonable mill levies.

Uh the maximum mill levy proposed uh for debt is 50 for operations is 10.

Likely they will not be that high.

Uh the developer is going to have to figure out at what rate uh the commercial will bear, and then we would look at that as as the kind of mills that we pledge toward debt.

It's often 30, 35, 40, depending on you know what's around it and the type of of uh development coming in.

Um but the operating plan would authorize uh up to 50 mills if that uh is what we ultimately determine the market could bear.

Um in the end, uh we do talk a little bit about the interaction between the the bid and the the town.

We do come to you on an annual basis, uh, but you're not responsible for anything.

Uh you're not responsible for debt that gets issued by uh the district.

Uh you can't appoint directors, actually, all of the directors will serve at your pleasure.

Uh so the resolution before you tonight appoints uh representatives of the developer to serve on the board, but if you don't like what they're doing or how they're behaving, you can remove them and appoint somebody else and say this we would like you to do something different.

the the bid and the the town we do come to you on an annual basis uh but you're not responsible for anything uh you're not responsible for debt that gets issued by uh the district uh you can appoint directors actually all of the directors will serve at your pleasure uh so the resolution before you tonight appoints uh representatives of the developer to serve on the board but if you don't like what they're doing or how they're behaving you can remove them and appoint somebody else and say this we would like you to do something different um but we do believe that uh the BID is in the best interest of the development the project and and as Michael has said I think it's a really great opportunity for the town to bring in uh something unique uh that will attract different type of business uh not just your you know corner stores or your your drive throughs but uh really interesting businesses and and you know bring people to Erie this is tree town Colorado we want to keep bringing people here and and you know continue to grow this city so we do appreciate uh your consideration and we'll take any questions that you have tonight okay sounds good we're done with the presentation's done all right sounds good we'll see if there's any public comment tonight either in person or online no there is not all right then um we will bring it back um to the board or to the council here for any questions that we have so I'll just look to the council council member bear thank you thanks for the presentation I have a couple of questions um probably for for you Jack um or lucky the the B ID is there is that attractive for businesses when we have pad sites that are available that wouldn't that don't have a they're not in a business improvement district would it be disincentivizing or incentivizing to join a BID it so it kind of goes both ways right there's obviously going to be a little bit more of a uh a property tax burden um but having the infrastructure in place that's provided by this bid um is very attractive as well as there's the the great thing about a a bid is that you can use dollars for for marketing for events for security for to activate that area as well um so that is obviously a a great benefit to have those extra dollars going towards bringing in you know more customers to your your district um I'm sure locky has some additional information no I would just appreciate yeah I would just reiterate what what Jack said there's the costs in terms of higher property tax mills uh and the add-on sales uh public improvement fee that goes towards financing the bonds but then there's the benefit of knowing that there's this business improvement district that's provided all of the infrastructure and is also going to have this operational uh and maintenance uh work that's ongoing and is going to make sure that the area is well maintained and kept in good shape so there's there's costs and benefits to businesses looking to locate inside a business improvement district okay um great so I I noticed on um your slide talking about oh let's see this is slide six of ten benefits of business improvement district generally um talks about the elected board um is that different than the appointed directors by the council that it should say appointed oh okay yeah that should say appointed we are asking you to appoint that board uh would that serve at your pleasure there's an option in statute uh for you guys to say we don't want to deal with it uh you guys go hold annual elections or or biannual elections elect your own directors what we're proposing right now is that you guys appoint that okay so we would decide or this council would decide this if at some point okay yeah we want to do elections instead yeah and you can adopt a resolution that says go do elections yourself uh and if you really hate how things are going you can say we want to be the board of the the VID and you guys set up now we have appointed yep they'll appoint uh your representatives as directors okay great um and then not for this conversation but it has I if I don't bring it up we don't bring it up somebody in the community will then we will the signalized um intersection at Bon Ellen County lane um please consider a roundabout but to be talked about later but yeah and I think we can address all those as we go through the site review process and the final development plans um yeah thank you and and I think one important thing I think we hit on it a little bit is that it was pretty kind of it was like a contested item during our flat end is who's gonna do the maintenance who's gonna do this are you going to set up an HOA are you not going to set up an HOA and that's actually kind of what drove me down this way is saying if we can control this we have a huge vested interest in this property you know we can make sure that the maintenance is done good and there's plenty of you know funding and that that HOA burden isn't on the the res you know the the tenants either or the owners of the each a lot so I think that's a big benefit that we realize out of this as well.

Thank you.

I yeah, I um think it's a great opportunity for um for area like the location is close to town center, and um, you know, so it should end also on on main routes.

Um says it's gonna be the the largest uh regional soccer club in in the area.

Uh um, so could you talk a little bit about it?

Yeah, sure.

I mean, I uh we're like I said, we they currently have about 1800 members.

I'm not personally on the board.

My business partner is on the board.

I think he's the president of the board.

Um they've grown significantly over the last few years, and they've grown east.

Um as families have moved out east, the demand has grown significantly.

Uh they have specialized clubs that occur, you know, teams that operate in Erie uh themselves.

And right now, their program has grown to where they're a nationally recognized club in the in the country and are competing at the top levels, but also are developing the youth, uh the younger kids at a great rate right now.

So I think it's just it's a testament to their their philosophy and goals and education and and training at a at a young age and and developing just the love of the game.

And you know, the one thing I forgot to mention is this also uh provides an opportunity for a volleyball club in Erie, also, and we've had multiple clubs interested in coming and taking advantage of that.

Um and sounds like this is the only facility like this between Lakewood and uh Windsor.

Yeah, there's I think it's it will be from a soccer perspective, it'll be top notch.

Uh there is one larger facility in uh Windsor, and obviously the Gold Crown Foundation, which I think we're all familiar with, probably operates a uh large basketball indoor sports facility in in Lakeland, along with some outdoor basketball or outdoor uh baseball, excuse me.

So primarily soccer, basketball, volleyball.

Um I'll have to I do have to ask about pickleball.

Yeah, yeah, we did have some pickleball programming.

Um it's kind of one of those things where I think we just need to kind of look at it and see how when we get to site plan review, I think that's gonna be where a lot of those questions are going to be addressed.

I think pickable, obviously, we don't you have a great facility, you know, outdoor pickleball facility.

Um it was full tonight.

I drove by it was full.

I think I have to tell you, I spend a lot of time out here.

I'm in my car reading, walking around your parks four days a week at either Aspen Grove or Soaring Soaring Heights, and you have great outdoor facilities here and great library and infrastructure.

And so I think we'll just look at where the demands and the needs are.

Yeah.

Couldn't you foresee the demand getting larger for all the sports and and uh you know having to expand or yeah, I mean, we've thought about it.

Obviously, the facilities are not cheap to build.

Um, and I wouldn't say the goal is not to create a huge profit margin here.

That's never been what we've done.

And you know, I I've done some other large lot development with metro districts and things like that.

It's this is a different beast than like a residential metro district.

Um so I I could see it growing, yeah, for sure.

Great, thanks.

We and we do have some other marquee like athletic, I don't know, pole vaulting, baseball, indoor facilities, training, batting cages that have shown a lot of interest.

Yeah, great, thank you.

All right, other questions from the council.

Go ahead, yeah.

Thank you.

Um, yeah, thank you for the presentation.

Uh just a couple questions.

First off on the um so I see there's uh the members here, so pardon me.

I got on the wrong slide.

Um so your cost improvement plans just over six million, but you're asking for for some point six um uh uh total uh indebtedness.

So it is is uh is that over is are those like 40-year bonds or what what is the yeah, they would be four-year bonds.

Um and ultimately we're not gonna issue debt next year.

Okay, so you're gonna see this again next year if you approve it uh tonight, and we bring a budget on an annual basis as well.

So when we're ready to issue bonds, if we think we're gonna do it in 2027, we'll have an actual budget with a finance plan that shows what we intend to issue the next year and how that debt would be structured so that we can talk through that with the council and and make sure that you're comfortable with it as well.

Okay, um, but they are typical similar to metro district bonds, they're 40-year bonds, uh, but they are tax exempt.

Sure.

Uh so there's a lot of benefit there.

Cool.

Okay, but similar structure.

Okay.

Um I think some of that discrepancy also is in sort of some offside stuff where the city's requesting us to pay now for our portion of the signalized intersection at Bonal, and then a road that is to be built in the future on the east side of the property at development.

So I think that also is factoring in, it's about $800,000 for those two things that the city's asking us to, the town is asking us to come up with.

Okay.

Okay.

Um and then for the lot, so the the uh is is the idea that the lot owners the will that they will lease that out to tenants, or is is this like like maybe like in a triple net, or is this yeah, we're not quite sure exactly how we're gonna facilitate that.

We may develop some of that our ourselves and rent it at a triple net basis.

Obviously, it gets to that mill levy where what we don't want to harm the project because we're financially invested in it.

Sure, where we can't get triple net leases and things like that.

So it's gonna I think kind of all balance itself out, but this is I mean, our best financial modeling that we know of today.

The market can accommodate.

Sure, excellent.

Um the only other thing I will say is that um down in that same area there used to be a indoor golf training facility that was was very popular, and then uh unfortunately the the uh went out of business.

So uh I'm sure for folks that were fan of that would be pushing for that.

Oh, there you go.

Yeah.

Selfishly asked that, but yeah, thank you.

Hopefully, it's more popular the second time around.

Yeah, yeah, there we go.

Right?

Councilman O'Connor.

Thank you.

Um I I must have missed the detail on you mentioned something about donating land.

What portion of the entire eastern section that where the soccer fields are where the soccer fields and the indoor facility sits on.

So who would it be donated to?

Um either probably the soccer club.

Okay.

Yeah.

So they're not or they would set up some other nonprofit type of you know land ownership entity.

Makes sense.

But that's who's you know, we've always intended to.

And it's just not feasible for an organization like that to do anything like this without you know that kind of a donation.

Yeah.

And they would manage the you think they would manage the indoor facilities.

Or some combination of a athletic youth athletic operation.

That's not necessarily their expertise, but um, you know, there'd probably be a little food and beverage in there, and um obviously the basketball is gonna be managed probably by the people that know basketball the best.

Okay.

And the um it sounds like the schedule, the earliest you would break ground is maybe 27.

Well, we were ready to break ground.

We have the financing for the horizontal in place.

Um securing the issuer, well, the letter of credit that's required from the town of Erie is a little bit difficult to procure.

Um typically on a horizontal development, we'd go out and get a bond and bond for it.

This you know, the requiring the requirement is for us to bring basically I think 125% of the total cost in a letter of credit, which is basically doubles the cost of our infrastructure for as long as we're under construction and the guarantee period.

So I think we're getting pretty close to having that in place, but this certainly helps that a lot.

Okay.

And one last question.

Any re any um retail interest to this point?

Um yeah, some services.

Uh I would say brew pub, restaurant type of interest.

I think kind of a lot of things want to feed off of this, just knowing that there's gonna be a lot of it around there.

Like some of the stuff that you're probably not gonna be super excited about today, but like you know, the coffee shop, uh just where people can go and get their coffee when they're there, you know.

I think there's some demand for that.

We probably are gonna be pretty selective on who we want to come in and just make sure that this community kind of really works well together, this development makes sense.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

Yeah, I have one question.

So seeing Erie as a bedroom community.

So there's not a lot of movement of people in and out.

And when the kids leave to college, how do you see this growing like other school districts?

If you see there is declining enrollment, and only Erie has uh demand for schools.

But uh, I agree that this is not only just schools, but how do you see constant enrollment in into these uh area, which means how do you keep it going all the time?

Any of these these athletic programs?

Yeah.

Well, I think we're seeing some of that in Vulver right now with the school populations declining and um obviously Boulder has its own problems, but I I think I see the exact opposite out here.

I see this being something that would continue to grow, and I think even with the school enrollment decreasing, the demand and opportunity for youth athletics and the benefits that are coming from it are just growing exponentially large.

So my my point was more of uh we don't have like apartments and smaller homes or high density homes.

It's like 90% single family and bedroom community.

So when the kids leave to college, most of the homes are like occupied by parents.

Well, just as an example, on my son's team.

They draw from five regional high schools to come to Erie to play basketball.

And it's you know, Centaurus and Lafayette, it's Silver Creek, it's Broomfield, it's Boulder, it's Fairview, it's Erie as a great program.

So and we have kids coming from Fort Collins just down here to play.

And that's the same with the soccer.

They have kids that drive every single night from Fort Collins to come play for the soccer club.

Thank you.

Okay.

Councilmember Hopak, are you okay?

Uh mean to skip you last time.

No, that's right.

I was kind of gathering my thoughts.

Um thank you.

Um little confused, I guess maybe on on um from the agenda everything.

What are we approving here tonight?

The district itself, final plat, the results agreement.

I mean, all that stuff's in our packet.

So what what exactly are we being asked to approve?

Just the district.

Just the district.

Yes.

The plots are approved.

Yeah.

Um so in a sense, you're the developer and you're going to attract the businesses that to fill, and we'll have the final plat and the preliminary and the final plat, all that kind of stuff in the future.

It's it's done.

The final plots that's already all been done.

Oh, it has been done.

So I remember the construction documents are essentially approved, and we could start construction on this.

We already have that approved with the district wrapping around it.

Yeah, okay.

I've got my head around it now, thank you.

Okay.

All right.

I think this is awesome.

When I think of Erie, right, we talk about the small town feeling, which is one thing.

You know, you think of old town and the restaurants and all of that.

But then it's also the place where people want to move to raise their families.

I think we've seen that time and time again.

We're only roughly half built out, maybe not even half built out.

And so I'm glad uh council member Petramelli was asking the question because there are pockets of the front range that are shrinking, and that's causing problems for the schools and um you know, economic development.

I think Erie's in a unique place being where we're at, people want to be here.

And then I think of Frederick Firestone Decono, right on the other side of I-25, they're growing, and a sports complex will bring them in.

So if there's a sports bar here or a coffee shop or whatever other businesses are, that's gonna create economic development in the core of our town as well.

So I'm I'm all for this, and um I'm looking forward to to seeing it play now.

Appreciate it.

We are too.

Um, all right.

With that, I'm going to uh close the uh public uh comment portion and we'll bring it back to the council um to see if there are any questions amongst ourselves, and then I'll see if we have a motion to approve resolution 25176.

So does the council have any more thoughts, comments?

All right, with that, I'll see if we do have a motion to approve resolution 2517.

Motion to approve.

Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed, say no.

All right, motion carries.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Good luck to you.

Good luck.

All right, we'll move on to item 25501, a public hearing, an ordinance of the town council of the town of Erie amending title 10 of the Erie Municipal Code regarding public hearing notice requirements.

Hopefully the final registration agreed.

Oh, you're you're pinch hitting tonight.

I am yes, I'll fill in.

Okay, all set.

Yes, go for it.

Yeah, sorry.

Thank you.

As was stated, this is a request tonight.

It's an ordinance amending Title 10, the Area Municipal Code for some hearing notice requirements.

And I'm filling in for Sarah tonight.

I'm Chris LaRue, uh Principal Planner for Development Review.

This presentation will go over a quick background.

We'll talk about the proposal briefly and then our recommendation.

So originally ordinance number 11-2021 was passed by the then Board of Trustees on May 25th, 2021.

And that ordinance clarified how properties are identified in notices.

And I'll show what that is in just a moment.

However, uh this change was never uh codified in our unicode, so it never officially was put into place, unfortunately.

And since then there have been some other changes to the code to numbering and structure that have occurred that we just need to catch up to.

So a new ordinance was drafted by our legal council to make changes as originally intended in 2021, and I'll show you what those are.

Um but first uh the planning commission considered this request on September 3rd of this year.

There was no public comment, and they unanimously passed um resolution recommending approval of this code change.

So here's um the first portion of it.

It's a change to uh 1072 F1, which is the uh step six or the notice.

So on your screen, uh the areas that are underlying and italicized, that's the new language, and the stuff that's stricken through obviously is being removed.

Um so basically what's being changed is in number two there, it's changing to um well, I guess I should say that first the content of notices, as you can see, are are required under the chapter.

Um they identify date, time, and place of the public hearing, and then two proposing to say identify the property uh subject to the application, and that's striking the describe the property involved in the application by street address or legal description and nearest cross streets, uh, and just giving us a little more uh flexibility and how we identify those properties in the notices.

I was taking a peek of uh as to why this was originally done.

It sounds like back in 21 there was a really large property that had a a lot of parcels, and so the legal descriptions got voluminous.

It was a large amount of text.

It's not super cost effective when you're publishing a newspaper.

Uh so this would give us a little more flexibility to use either cross streets or parcel numbers or maps.

Um, so that's kind of the purpose behind it.

And then the other two language changes in this section were um changing um, it had referenced a proposed action or a matter.

It's actually the application, so clarifying that we're referencing uh the application that's part of uh that notice.

And then the other section that was being amended is uh 1075 B1.

Uh that's in the rezoning procedures.

Um, and again, it's in the uh notice area here of the rezoning.

It talks about published mailed and posted notice of public hearings and rezoning shall be provided.

And it was striking out in addition, the notice shall list the protest provisions set forth in subsection 1075 B8C.

That section doesn't actually exist in the code, so it doesn't reference anything that's currently in there.

That was stricken um uh I forget the exact year, but previously by another town council.

So it's basically getting rid of superfluous language that doesn't reference anything currently in our code.

Uh so if the ordinance passes, we'll update the templates and user guides to reflect the change.

We'll make sure that it gets done in municode and updated as appropriate.

Uh noticed for the tonight's hearing was published in the Colorado Hometown Weekly.

Uh there were no posting, mailing or neighborhood meetings required in terms of updating UDC code changes.

So on the screen are the approval criteria that we're reviewing code amendments against.

Um it's just making sure the amendment promotes public health safety, welfare, general welfare.

Uh it's consistent with our comprehensive plan, stated purposes of the EDC.

It's necessary or desirable because of changing conditions, new concepts, or other conditions.

Uh so we found that it met those requirements.

Uh that concludes the staff presentation tonight.

Happy to answer any questions.

If there's any legal questions, we couldn't, of course, uh look to Kendra on any of those things.

So appreciate it.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

And I should have said the public hearing is open, but I'll say that now and then I'll see if there's anybody from the public who would like to address this tonight.

I am not seeing anybody online and nobody has signed up.

So all right, sounds good.

So sorry, that I all right.

Um so we'll bring it back to council, see if there's any questions, comments, concerns.

Just so the if I'm understanding this right, the when we're getting the long descriptions, we're doing like township range, those that ordering of things or yeah, okay.

So okay.

Yeah, it's meets in bounds.

Yeah, okay, gotcha.

It was getting very long.

Yep, yeah.

And we tried to fix this as Chris said, we tried to fix this in 2020.

Nobody even knows what that means unless you're a land surveyor.

Exactly.

Yeah, so yep, I got you.

Those notices probably don't get looked at very much in newspapers.

It is kind of kind of old fashioned, I guess, but we're still required to do those.

So that's all I had.

All right, not seeing any other uh comments from uh council.

I'll close the public hearing portion.

I'm gonna skip the deliberations and just see if we have a motion to approve ordinance 33 2025.

Motion to approve.

Second, motion second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no.

All right.

Thanks, Chris.

Shortest public hearing ever.

Oops.

I didn't mean to close that one.

All right, we'll go on to our last item tonight.

It's item 2553, an ordinance of the town council, town of yearie repealing and reenacting title three of the year municipal code regarding boards, commissions, and committees, and making corresponding amendments to the Erie Municipal Code, including moving the historic landmark uh regulations to Title 9.

All right, I will turn it over to Meredith Mooth, our director of administrative services and operations.

Good evening, everyone.

I'm hoping to keep this right on schedule and moving on.

And I'm gonna open the public hearing.

I'm not gonna forget this time.

This one doesn't even need a public hearing.

It doesn't need to publicly.

Oh, it doesn't matter.

So much for my script.

Uh good evening, everyone.

I'm here to present uh this proposed ordinance, which is a cleanup to Title III, which relates to your boards and commissions.

Um staff was looking at the charter and was looking at the code book and they didn't quite align, so we wanted to update that to make sure that everything in the charter is reflected properly in the code.

Um so the what you have in front of you tonight would update the municipal code to clarify how the town council may remove a board or commission member to align with the language that's in the charter.

It also updates the code to put information and regulations that pertain to all the boards into one section and then have the individual boards separately.

Previously it was kind of all put together by different every time a board was created, a new section was added.

It was kind of a mess.

So this cleans that up a little.

The ordinance also moves the historic landmarking regulations from Title III and moves them to Title IX.

Originally they were put in Title III with um when the preservation commission was created, so it kind of kept it together, but it makes more sense to keep the building regulations with the building information.

Um then at the request of council, the ordinance moves board and commission appointments to odd numbered years, so they will take place after new council members have taken their seats.

Um to align with that, um, it does a one-term, one-time shortening of the existing board positions that end in 2028, would have them end in 2027 so that then we're on that odd numbered odd numbered year schedule.

Um it also changes the requirement for boards to report to council annually uh to have them report to council annually rather than semi-annually, so you'd only hear from every board once.

Additionally, Councilmember O'Connor has made some suggestions that we're happy to include if the um council agrees.

One would be to rename the tree board to the tree advisory board, because that word happens to be left out in the current code, but it would align it with what all the other how all the other boards are named.

Um he noted that the board of adjustment probably doesn't need to report annually because, like, for example, then the past year they haven't actually met.

So we could put a say uh statement in there that if the board that particular board is not meeting in any given year, they wouldn't need to give an annual report.

And um there was a request uh to make an additional duty for the tree board, which is to verify that the town forester um is working to make sure that the town is meeting the requirements of the Arbor Day Foundation's tree city USA program, as that was apparently one of the main drivers between for the tree board in previous years.

So that's what's before you this evening.

Those three sections um or suggestions from council member O'Connor can be added in as well if that's what you so desire.

Okay, I'll bring it back to council to see if um comments, questions.

Go ahead.

So on the um recommendation by council member O'Connor for the Board of Adjustments.

Currently it says every board has to um would have to report do an annual report.

We could put in a sentence that said in the year in which the Board of Adjustment is not meeting, no annual report would be required or something.

Okay.

At council's request or something.

Yeah, I'd have to run that language by Canberra, but we'd get something appropriate in there.

All right.

Oh, go ahead, Councilmember Bear.

Oh, I just wanted to um note that we've heard from Planning Commission that they would rather not have shortened um some planning commissioners would rather not have shortened um uh roles for this time, and I I appreciate that um that's not what was included this time around, but I did want to just note that we have heard that from them and um and I I also appreciate that because my my term was shortened for the council um last go round, and so I just want to acknowledge that um we appreciate their service, and I don't want this to be a reflection of um sort of any animosity or anything like that towards planning commissioners.

Okay, all right.

Then I'm gonna see if there is a motion to approve ordinance 032 2025 to include the adjustments that council member O'Connor put forward and that you described to us uh this evening.

So amended and so recommended.

So moved.

Yeah.

Second.

All right, a motion and a second.

Um all in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no.

Motion carries.

All right, we will move on to our last item tonight.

It's council member reports and announcements.

And I think I'm gonna start with council member uh Pastor Amelli this time, and we'll just go all the way uh down the dais.

I don't have okay councilmember O'Connor.

Um I was hoping to mention the next uh blood drive from the town of Erie, but I can't find it because today was the uh American Red Cross blood drive at the Eerie Community Center, and usually during that process you can sign up for your next appointment, and then I would have had the date.

I don't have the date, but I'm guessing it's something like 50 some days from now because that's the period of time.

So that was it.

All right, we will definitely have a meeting or two before then, and uh um hopefully we can get the actual date from that.

All right, Mayor Pro Tem.

Uh just to say, since uh we are having this meeting tonight, since next Tuesday is Veterans Day, just to thank you to all our veterans town and uh in town and at large, and uh we appreciate your service to our country.

Thank you.

Councilmember Bear.

Thank you.

Um I just want to recognize that this is Kendra's final meeting with us this evening, and um just want to thank you for your service to the town.

It's been a pleasure to work with you.

I've learned so much from you, and I appreciate your patience with me.

Thank you so much in particular.

But um enjoyed being here, and yes, this will be my last meeting.

So thank you.

And I know we'll see you around.

You were not going to be.

Yes, I'm not going anywhere.

Still be your resident.

That's right.

Yeah, uh-oh, get ready.

Um flexible Tuesday night.

Exactly.

Oh, nice.

Um, and then I I just want to give a shout out for the food drive we have going on right now.

Um, we still have drop-off locations at the Erie Police Department.

Thank you, Chief.

And at the ECC, um, I have taken 646 pounds of donated food to Sister Carmen, which was two carloads, and three carloads to the Erie Community Food Bank, and I believe there is probably more to pick up today.

I didn't I didn't get out to pick up today, but um it's an incredible show of generosity and kindness from the community, and I'm and I'm truly grateful.

Um, and I will be continuing the pickup tomorrow.

So if you haven't got had a chance to drop by and make it some of your drop-offs, you can do that tomorrow.

Um, and of course, you can always donate directly to Cole Creek Meals on Wheels, Sister Carmen, the Erie Community Food Bank, or the Erie Eplink, which are all um organizations on the ground in Erie helping our residents.

So thank you all so much for participating in that.

Um I also attended the Colorado 7 Coalition, which Mayor Moore hosted um last week here at Town Hall, and CDOT was in attendance in attendance, and we got some updates about their um 4P process and the 10-year plan.

And um mentioned that there's a whoop-de-doo on Colorado 7 between between um Lowell and Sheridan and kind of right in front of that gas station as you're heading west.

And um, it started as a whoopdieu and is kind of turned into a cliff.

And I'm happy to report that CDOT was out there today assessing the cliff.

So hopefully there'll be some improvement there very soon.

I'll be testifying at the Transportation Commission on November 19th as they're looking to finalize their 10-year plan.

Um and we want to ensure that our priorities in Erie are well represented, and um including on I-25 and also Colorado 7.

Um and then the 287 coalition met.

I saw Mayor Pro Tem there last week online, and happy to report that the safety improvements on 287 are moving forward.

There'll be two phases.

Um the sections that really impact ERIA is phase two, that's in the design um phase, and so we'll we will see improvements, but you know, it moves at the speed of government.

So we'll see about the timing.

But um, those are my reports for today.

I hope you had a chance to turn in your ballot and are watching um election results with beta breath.

And other than that, just keep your good dogs on a leash.

All right, sounds good.

I'm gonna jump in just for a second to add on to the Colorado 7 because we did host it here in Erie on Friday, and it was the first time a municipality actually took the lead.

Uh Miguel Aguliar from our town led the meeting from a facility, not a facilitation, but from the agenda and uh ensuring everybody knew um in the coalition uh what was going on.

He did an excellent job.

Uh John Ferrozi was also there, and it was nice to see that group.

Um and then my learning was to the cliff or the whoopdee doo out on highway seven.

If you've driven on it, it's significant.

I was one of the bazillion people that just assumed that CDOT knew it was out there, and we were literally having this conversation last week, and they CDOT is talking about we've just become aware of it, we're sending people out.

I think it was the next day.

Um, and you saw him out there today.

Today, yeah.

Yep.

And so this is a reminder to us all if there's something on the road, a big pothole or uh um uh a whoop-de-doo, call it in.

Um, otherwise they may not know that it's actually out there.

All right.

Okay.

Councilmember Mortalero.

All right, thanks.

And thanks, Kendra.

I'm glad you're not going far that you'll you'll be around.

So appreciate that.

And uh Councilmember Bear for uh leading uh the food drive.

Appreciate all the efforts there.

Uh very important for our community.

And um to uh echo that you know, no council meeting next uh Tuesday, November 11th, as we celebrate Veterans Day.

So please take a moment and uh honor and recognize our brave men and women from our our um military service who keep us safe and protect our freedom.

So thanks a lot.

Yeah, thanks.

Councilmember Hobeck.

I only wish I'd gotten to go on the whoop-de-doo.

I don't know how you missed it, but I was so much.

So we're handing out tickets, so did you have to pay for pay for the ride?

It's a feature.

All right, I don't have anything else to add other than um uh Kendra for uh the 11 months I've been here.

Um lots of things going on.

There's been a huge amount of work, and I appreciate your guidance and helping us stay legally on track.

Um the transition plan, by the way, isn't like days or weeks, it's months.

So uh Kendra will be here for a while, and she's got history, and so I imagine um we'll still see you, and you may even be back at a council meeting uh or two in the future.

You never know.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

All right, with that, um, we will adjourn the meeting.

Thank you.