I will call to order the meeting for the city council for January twenty twenty twenty six, and we'll begin with a political please get a roll call.

Mayor Topia Vega here.

Mayor Pro Tim Barnes.

Good evening.

Councilor Bullier.

Here.

Councillor Friedland.

Here.

Councillor Gallego.

Good evening.

Councillor Giannola.

Here.

And Councillor Jensen.

Here.

Mayor, we have a quorum.

Thank you so much.

We'll begin tonight with public input.

For those of you who want to speak, please fill out one of the speaker request forms there in the back through the glass store.

And they look something like this for all you for everyone who comes up and speaks, please just state your name and address, and you will have five minutes to speak.

You're also available to call in.

We will begin tonight with Thomas Glenn.

Good evening, everyone.

Thanks again for having this meeting.

I'm at 745 South Vermont Drive.

I've been here a number of times regarding the RMMA port noise.

And my discussion tonight is to thank all of you.

Thank you for the filing that you did submitted to the FAA.

Greatly appreciated.

And thank you so much.

It's a valuable effort towards preserving kind of our airspace, if you will, in a sense, over Lafayette for the future going forward.

Hopefully, we get some positive uh feedback and reaction to adjust the flight paths that RMMA is uh established with the FAA.

So uh I'll keep it short and sweet.

Thank you.

Thank you for your leadership and much appreciated.

Thank you so much.

Next we'll hear from Ron Spalding.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council, Ron's voting 1326, Eldorado Way Lafayette, Colorado.

Uh I'm speaking tonight because soon you'll be looking at uh agenda item 5G resolution concerning the INX uh development.

I just wanted to say that uh when I first was made aware of INX before the Planning Commission several months ago, I didn't know what it was.

So but I've driven by there a thousand times or more than I lived here, just saw this one building on the front of the road, and then uh you know I'm always interested in things and looked it up.

God, lo and behold, this is one of the premier research companies in the country, maybe the world.

If you look up its website, I mean it's products, high performance process filtration and treatment equipment for the world's most happy chemicals and containments.

A lot more than that when you go on the website.

I don't know how many people are familiar with it, or how many in the city of Colorado, but uh we are blessed with some great companies in Lafayette, and this is truly one of them.

And anybody listening tonight should Google it up and just check it out.

It's just an amazing firm.

With that said, I was at the planning commission, made a couple positive comments, and the planning commission raised us some nice comments, and I want to say that one, I support 100% this Devon proposal to be approved.

I won't go into any detail because the city's staff analysis is just nailed all the comments that were made by the planning commission and others.

When I read the uh uh appendix here and and and the comments, every one of the questions was answered in very good detail, and I'm sure any questions that you raise be able to answer in detail, and uh it's just at a right on job from a citizen standpoint.

I just want to say driving up the 120 street corridor.

I mean, the plan, at least what I saw plan commission, the renderings of the architectural uh proposal is phenomenal, my humble opinion.

It's like a campus style uh uh development, which is uh just gorgeous, beautiful.

Uh so when you're driving up uh 120th Street, you know, it just complements the uh uh the the work that's been done with the city with South Boat of Road improvement and the bridge uh with uh uh geez the you know uh well it'll be corner when you make that left turn and go up and you've got the joiner company, which isn't everybody aware of that, they ought to check that out.

That's a premier organization right here locally.

So I'm saying from an aesthetic viewpoint, you're coming down South Boat of the Road, make that left turn.

I can just envision what this is gonna look like and and and just clean it up.

Uh I just can't say any more about it.

The the package speaks for itself.

The owner is a local boulder county gentleman.

Uh you know, Lafayette.

Uh you know, Lafayette, we're fortunate to have some great companies.

You know, I mean we haven't many of them.

Intermant Health, Metronics here, and this is one of them.

So when I just hope you look at it, questions all answered, and it's approved.

That's it's a wonderful proposal.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you so much.

Up next, we'll hear from uh Chelsea Pennington Hawke.

Hello there, good evening.

My name is Chelsea Pennington Hahn.

I am the director of the Lafayette History Museum.

We're located at 108 East Simpson Street in Old Town.

Uh and I'm here tonight to welcome and say hi to the new uh council members and returning everyone, um, everyone who's back, and also to introduce myself and the museum.

Uh the museum is actually celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, so we are very excited to be celebrating um having served the Lafayette community for half a century.

Uh, for anyone who may not know, the museum is a 501c3 nonprofit organization.

So we are not a city museum or commission, but we do receive city funding mainly through an excise tax on storage units that goes to support arts and cultural organizations in the city.

We also uh the city owns the historic house and property that houses the museum.

So we work closely with city staff and council to support city goals and to uh encourage both residents and visitors to Lafayette to better understand and appreciate the history of the city.

In recent years, that has included assisting with research on topics such as the town founder, Mary Miller, and the Pottersfield section of the Lafayette Cemetery.

Some of our big wins from last year include being able to hire a second staff member to manage our collections.

This was in large part thanks to the support of our community members as we faced some um uncertainty in federal funding that we'd hoped to receive last year.

Um, and instead we're able to rely on our community.

So we're really grateful for that support.

We also recently found out that we were awarded a grant from the State Historical Fund, um we're very excited about, and that will go towards planning for future restoration and repairs of the historic house where the museum is located.

We also just opened a new exhibit, which you'll hear about um in a minute from our board president.

So we hope to show you around the museum sometime.

Come and visit.

We're open Wednesdays through Saturdays, uh, but are always happy to schedule a tour of the museum at a time that works best for you.

So thank you so much, and we hope to see you at the museum soon.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Up next, we will hear from Mike Pasco.

Well, good evening.

Uh, my name is Mike Pascoe, 418 Jackson Street in Colcreek Village, and I'm the newly elected president of the executive board of Lafayette History Museum.

And at the end of last year, the museum opened our newest exhibit, new views of Lafayette.

The exhibit features two historical collections.

They offer different perspectives of our city.

Uh, one being how Lafayette has evolved over time and how the buildings have physically changed.

All exhibit taxes presented in both English and Spanish, and we're really excited to invite everybody to the exhibit's opening.

We're gonna celebrate that this Saturday, January 24th.

Be from 10 a.m.

to 12 p.m.

Guests are welcome to explore our museum, meet the staff and volunteers behind the exhibit, participate in a family-friendly time capsule activity, and that's gonna celebrate personal Lafayette memories.

Well, if you'll be able to join us, and we'd be honored to welcome you.

Thank you all for your time.

Could you repeat that date just so I can write it down?

No, I think everybody should hear it again.

Uh get your pencils ready.

We're gonna call Saturday, January 24th.

Clear your schedule from 10 a.m.

to 12 p.m.

at the museum.

Thanks.

Thank you so much.

Next, we'll hear from Samantha Brown.

Hello everyone.

Um, I'm go by Samantha Brown in public forum.

Um, I would like to continue bringing your attention to frequently experienced unsafe conditions on the west side of the Cole Creek Trail in Lafayette due to um conflict between pedestrians and bicycles.

Um this time I would like uh to question the main trail infrastructure and its ability to sustain the increased demand and use.

Um, as I learned in the last couple weeks, that this stretch of the trail is the oldest built segment of the Kolkari Trail system and open to public in 1992.

Uh the Cole Creek Trail is 10 foot wild pass of the crash gravel.

Their um documents available to public.

Um, according to the rural design guide.com, uh, the project, which is partially supported by federal highway administrations.

For example, over 75% of one type of users, either bicyclist or pedestrians.

On the other hand, the trail with minimum of 12 feet is recommended even for low volume of use, but heavy mix of users.

About 50% of bicycles and other people and other users, like pedestrians and runners.

Typical trail design should be including two unobstructed shoulders, either two shoulders on each side, two feet wide, or one shoulder of foot five feet wide on one side.

So now let's look who is using the Col Creek Trail.

And I was pleasantly surprised that every five years, Boulder County conducts regional and neighborhood trail visitor survey study.

And it looks at the long-term trend of visitors' demographic preferences, attitude, and behaviors.

The latest surveys has been conducted in 2022, and the report has been issued in 2023.

The percent of cold three of the percent of the Cold Creek Trail bike users in 2022 was reported to be 44%.

This reported data puts Col Creek Trail into heavy mix of users category that implies wider trail to accommodate everyone.

Currently, the west side of the Col Creek Trail is mainly appeared to be 10 feet wide, with a few narrowings to about eight feet of usable space due to overgrowing and fallen trees.

And based on above information, the current main trail is most likely not sufficient for ongoing use, and probably good idea to start thinking about tree vamping and reevaluating the main trail that is gonna be 34 years, uh 34 years in service.

Meanwhile, I would like to ask the council to enable pedestrian and bike separation by permitting pedestrians to use long-existing side trails for safety of all.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

That is the last speaker request form I have, but I'll make sure to ask.

Is there anybody else in the room who would like to speak tonight?

Not seeing anyone else, I would turn to our city clerk.

No calls.

No online calls tonight.

Okay, with that, we will close public input.

Thank you so much to everyone.

And we'll move on to tonight's consent agenda.

Uh a few items tonight, including uh item A, January 6, 2026, City Council meeting minutes.

Item B, January 9th, 2026, City Council special meeting minutes.

Item C, second reading of ordinance number one series 2026, setting the annual salary of the president, presiding municipal judge of the Lafayette Municipal Court and repealing all ordinances in conflict.

Item D, second reading of ordinance number two, series 2026, amending Article 2 of chapter 115 of the code of ordinances regarding the model traffic code and item E, renewal of pawn shop license easy pond, Colorado incorporated D B A Easy Pond 406 South Public Road.

Are there any items council would like to pull?

No.

Not seeing any.

I will take a motion.

Move to approve our consent agenda this evening.

Second.

We have a motion.

We have a second, and I believe we will take a roll call vote.

Mayor Pro Tem Barnes.

Yes.

Councilor Bullier.

Yes.

Councilor Friedland.

Yes.

Councilor Gallegos?

Yes.

Councilor Gianola.

Yes.

Councilor Jensen.

Yes.

Mayor Tapia Vega.

Yes.

That motion passes unanimously.

Thank you so much.

We will move on to our next order of business, which is proclamations.

We have one proclamation tonight.

And if it's okay with everyone, I will be reading it in tonight.

The proclamation tonight is a great kindness challenge.

Whereas the Great Kindness Challenge was created and launched in 2011 by Kids for Peace, a global nonprofit based in Carlsbad, California.

And whereas the Great Kindness Challenge was piloted with three Carlsbad Public Schools and has now expanded to all 50 states with over 22 million students participating.

And whereas the Great Kindness Challenge is one week dedicated to students performing as many kind acts as possible using a provided kindness checklist.

And whereas Peak to Peak Charter School proudly demonstrates its commitment to improve school climate and increase student engagement by participating in the Great Kindness Challenge.

And whereas Peak to Peak Charter School is honored to unite all students in the spirit of kindness and respect.

Now, therefore, the mayor and city council of the city of Lafayette, Colorado, do hereby declare January 26th through 30th, 2026 as a Great Kindness Challenge Week where kindness matters in Lafayette and beyond.

So moved.

Second.

We have a motion.

We have a second.

Is there any further discussion?

Yes.

I'd just like to say Mayor that in light of that we just celebrated Martin Easter King's.

Martin Lisa King Day just like to say that that's part of what I believe Dr.

King was trying to convey is that kindness is a piece of building community.

So I think it's appropriate that we recognize the challenge.

In conjunction with the effort to build strengthened community and use love more than anything else.

Thank you so much.

Any further discussion from any other counselors.

I don't see anything else for Beck.

We could have a roll call vote, please.

Councilor Polier.

Councilor Bolier.

Sorry, it says I'm unmuted, but yes, I'm voting voting yes.

Councilor Friedland.

Yes.

Counselor Gleggos?

Yes.

Councilor Giannola?

Yes.

Councilor Jensen?

Yes.

Mayor Tapia Vega?

Yes.

And Mayor Pro Tem Barnes.

Yes.

That motion passes unanimously.

Thank you so much.

Moving quick tonight.

On to regular business.

And good to go, sir.

Good.

Let's go.

All right.

Good evening, Mayor.

Commissioners.

My name is Jake Mitchell, and I'm one of the planning managers over development review, otherwise referred to as current planning.

We're here this evening to talk about the Ionics site plan and uh architectural review along with the parking modification.

Quick overview of how the presentation will go.

I'll give a brief introduction.

The applicant and their team is here.

They will make a presentation, followed by an overview of the staff analysis for myself, then questions from council, followed by a discussion and hopefully a motion.

So the Ionics property is at the uh northeast corner of North 120th and East Wind Drive.

It consists of two kind of what I'm referring to as parcels.

What first was annexed into the city in 1982, and that's the parcel that has the two existing buildings, kind of the western two-thirds of the property or so.

And then the other, the eastern portion was annexed into the city in 2003.

I am really the scope of tonight's project really focuses on that western property that has the building.

However, I wanted to include the 2003 portion of the property because it does factor into the parking modification request.

So there are two existing buildings.

The building on the western side is 12,000 square feet and approximately 18 feet in height.

The zoning is industrial or M1.

The proposed building is uh 23,000 square feet, and it also includes a variety of site improvements uh that really kind of go throughout the site.

And then as stated, they are also requesting a parking reduction from 155 off-street spaces to 120.

That's a 22 point six percent reduction.

And then one other thing I would like to point out is in the staff report there was an error.

I mix up two numbers.

So it states the eastern building was approved by the city in 2010.

That was actually 2001.

Moving on to existing conditions.

Again, we see the kind of what I've been referring to as the eastern building and the western building.

Some things to note here, we don't have any sidewalk along North 120th.

We have kind of a surface parking lot wrapping, the building of the Northwest site, direct vehicular access off of North 120th Street.

And then kind of note all of the mature trees mainly around the perimeter, but also this kind of stand in the middle here.

And an overview of the site plan.

I'm using the landscape plan because I wanted to emphasize the landscaping.

It's hard to see here, but we do have a sidewalk along North 120th now, and we also have a bus stop for a future dash route.

We also have brought the parking lot interior to the site.

That's eliminating the parking around this building and replacing it with landscaping, just making for a more interesting uh street frontage.

And then finally, while you can't tell on the plans, this access is now restricted to just emergency vehicles.

It will no longer be a public access point.

All access will be taken off of East Wind Drive and these two driveways down here on the south side of the property.

All right.

I also wanted to discuss kind of the process and applications because we have multiple different applications that have different paths to approval.

So I thought it'd be worth highlighting those.

We have the site plan and architectural review, which I forgot in the previous slide.

I was supposed to kind of uh you know prime that because we use the term spar all the time, and just as a refresher, that is a site plan and architectural review.

I use this often I forget to that sometimes not everybody understands what that means.

That's your standard architectural plan set that you received in your packet.

Uh it's really required with any new construction.

Uh oftentimes for you know commercial and industrial and multifamily projects, it's in a full-blown plan set like the one you received for smaller projects like a new single-family home, it's just reviewed through the building permit.

But that is our most common application type.

So this one starts uh the spar starts at planning commission.

Uh they reviewed it at their November 12th meeting.

They made a unanimous vote 5-0 recommending council approved the spar.

And then obviously, council is a decision-making body.

We're here tonight for that decision.

The parking modification is different, and it bypasses Planning Commission because it's over a 20% decrease.

So then it comes directly to City Council again for your decision tonight.

And then because they they are creating three new lots out here, that is a minor subdivision, so that is reviewed administratively by staff.

And then once it's in like the technical review is done and it's in an approvable state, we bring it back to city council because there are easements that are being dedicated and vacated, and that has to be approved by council.

So those are kind of the different application types associated with the project.

With that, I will turn it over to the applicant, and I'll be back up for the analysis.

Thank you.

Uh on 120th Street in East Wind Drive.

Um happy to introduce and I suspect it isn't, in fact, an introduction because many of you probably have never heard of Ion X Research Corporation, though you've probably driven by us many times.

We uh sort of take a uh relatively low level of uh advertising because we don't have any customers in this area, all of our customers are out of state.

Um we were formed in uh 1978, INX Research Corporation.

Um we moved to Lafayette in 1982, so we've been in the city of Lafayette for 44 years.

We occupy the two buildings that were just mentioned.

Uh one is a our general office and uh our manufacturing plant, and the second smaller building is uh our technological center, which is has recently been revived uh upgraded uh from uh from a warehouse to uh in fact uh an office building.

We um it's a little bit about what we do.

We're uh we build highly complex process systems which are used as a barrier from the processing and handling of hazardous chemicals and hazardous waste and the environment.

So we're basically environmental treatment people.

We protect the environment from all of the nasty things that are that we have to live with in this world.

Some of those things include for uh, for instance, uh uh systems that protect uh any accidental releases of radioactivity from commercial nuclear power plants, uh chemical weapons disposal facilities.

We we build protection equipment to uh protect the environment while that while destroying of chemical weapons.

Um we we do some work in the mining industry uh gold mines often uh require treatment of mercury so that it isn't released in the atmosphere.

We design and build those kinds of systems, and uh and and most recently we've had quite a significant growth in in an area of uh government national security areas, and uh and this is what's really spurring our growth on and requiring our new building to be built.

Uh we've basically outgrown our existing building, and we need to uh uh with existing contracts uh for the most part, these are contracts that all are with the US government.

Uh the government has granted us a uh in fact a grant to partially fund the construction of this building.

Uh, they're in we are in and they are in extreme need for the equipment that we build, and uh, and therefore we're appealing to the council to look favorably on this uh the plan we have.

Uh we believe that we're a valuable member of the community.

We employ about 90 people at our uh business, and and uh and we look forward to continuing to have a uh excellent relationship with the business community and Lafayette.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Kapan Wilkinson.

I'm uh representing the architecture side of this.

I work with Holland Basham Architects.

So I've got a couple slides just to show you some more information about that.

Okay, great.

So there's three can this link.

Okay, cool.

There's three existing there's two existing buildings on the site.

So this is the original building that uh Doug was talking about, and we have this large building here, and then this is our proposed building here.

So um, I know that you guys have looked at the site plan, but just briefly a couple other items to of note.

So we've got shared EB parking located here on the site.

Uh we have outdoor patio space on both for both buildings.

So this will be new for this existing building, and then this one is part of the design for this new building here.

Um that's just for employees to heat brakes, things like that.

Um Jake pointed out.

So if you see kind of like the dashed, dark dashed lines around these trees, those are the existing trees that we are saving.

Um, so there's a big stand here.

This is Doug's favorite tree here.

Uh we've got a bunch of trees all around the edges that we are also saving and then enhancing the landscape as well.

Okay.

So this is the exterior of the building.

So this side here, the west elevation, that's the side you would see as you're driving down 120th, and then this south elevation here is what you would see as you're coming in, turning off uh 120th on the east wind.

Um so this front building here, the smaller bit, um, is lower when it's facing 120th, and we've added um additional just interest to the building, so it's not quite so blank.

So you can see these awnings here, ton of glass, ton of windows.

That's all office space.

And then on the south side, we've added these awnings and additional windows along that side as well, and this um Wainscott uh layer around here.

Um I did want to just quickly show you the truck turning.

So um the products that Ionics created are very large, very heavy.

Um, so they have to be trucked out using semi-trucks.

So currently what happens is that truck comes in here and loads and unloads things out of this area on the existing building.

So the new building, we've got a bunch of overhead doors in this space.

So they'll come in, kind of back up, kind of pull forward and then back in into this area for that to happen.

The other thing on here to note is this is the accessible route for folks.

So we've got separate accessible parking for each building as part of this.

And this is a rendering of that at that building, the new building.

So this is looking from 120th, and then East Wend is over here on the right side with the white area.

You can see a lot of this is metal panel.

But we've oriented it in different ways in different colors just to provide that interest.

So that's it.

Thank you.

All right.

So I'll just kind of give an overview of the analysis.

There are actually over 20 spar approval criteria, and so we're not going to go through each one individually.

We lump them together in kind of five categories.

Architecture, that's kind of the biggest, the biggest bucket.

Then we have landscaping, and I'll kind of go into those in a little bit more detail on the next slide.

But circulation, we we look at both pedestrian and vehicular circulation.

Screening talks about what should be screened, how that screening should uh be constructed and how it should complement the buildings.

And then we have some uh or at least a criterion on lighting, talks about compatible with the building and uh minimizing impact on adjacent properties.

So just to give you a little idea of what's out there now, this is the larger building.

You know, it's got the architectural metals in the industrial part of the building, the office part, also incorporates some industrial metal, but a lot more glazing, uh, some what appears to be stone.

And then I couldn't get a great picture of the front of this building because it was of cars in the sunlight, but this is the front facing north 120th.

They added some new windows recently, but again, some metals, architectural metals, some stone.

The back side of that building is more of a traditional industrial building uh with architectural metal facade.

So this is uh just going over the spar approval criteria.

The kind of talks to a lot about scale, proportion, and that's both within to each other and to the uh surrounding properties.

It talks about character and compatibility, uh, visual interest and durability.

And just to kind of go over some of what they've done here, the most noticeable is on what north 120th they incorporated a kind of a traditional storefront, a lot more glazing, canopies, some second story windows, and then they actually wrap that around uh the internal uh size, so to the north of the building.

And then they also add like a stone wainscotting around here.

They wrap that around the east wind facing facade, which is this one.

Also, um they added canopies over these windows to provide a little bit more visual interest from the public street.

Uh also there's some criteria that talks about roof line.

They kind of have an offset gable that's at least uh it provides a little interest.

As I understand it, that's really more an example of of a form following function that they needed the clearances for those two big overhead large overhead doors.

Um the other thing they talks about color, the color being compatible.

You saw the rendering, it incorporates a lot of earth tones to kind of match with what's out there already.

And then another big factor that kind of gets to compatibility and scale, is they step down the front of the building that's closest to the street, this you know, front third or so of the building, so that's more in scale, and it's a little bit more pedestrian friendly uh in that it's a slower in height.

So this you know, some of the examples of of what they did with with their industrial building that allowed us to find that it does meet the approval criteria.

Similarly with the landscaping, I mean I think this is something they really excelled at.

Uh you know, I've reviewed lots of plans over the years, and I don't know that I've seen one that really emphasized the tree preservation as well as this one did.

They uh they preserved 34 trees.

In addition, there's 29 new trees proposed, over 300 shrubs uh or ornamental grasses.

They also converted the remaining turf to drought tolerant turf and native grass mix, and their irrigation or projected irrigation use is actually one-third of what's allowed, the maximum is allowed by the city.

So they've done all this and they're actually doing it with with a third of the amount of water they could use to irrigate the property.

So I think that all speaks really well to the landscape design and allows us easily to make findings that it it meets the landscape approval criteria.

Uh so just kind of speaking broadly, based on our analysis and attachment B, the staff analysis, staff recommends approval of the spar uh with the conditions we have included.

So now moving on to the parking modification.

So there's four factors in the code, and we're used to criteria, but the code specifically says factors, so I'm just using code language here.

And those are the first one expected number of cars owned by occupants of dwellings.

Well, we don't have any dwelling, so that's not applicable.

The parking needs of any non-dwelling users, that obviously applies.

The varying time period of use, as the applicant stated in their justification letter, they run one shift Monday through Thursday.

So there's no really variation in time.

So that one really doesn't apply here.

And then the last factor is the conveyance of private parking for public parking, which is mainly what we see in the old town area, and that doesn't apply here either.

So really the parking justification or modification is really based on that parking needs of any non-dwelling uses.

So as they state in their justification letter, they currently have 90 employees at time of going live with the new building, they expect to hire 10 to 15 new employees, and then an additional 10 to 15 new employees two to five years down the road.

So if they were to meet kind of all their growth expectations, that would result in 120 employees in two to five years after the building was constructed.

Additionally, they said they have on average about three visitors a day.

Uh so that results in 123 kind of people at the site, and they're proposing 120 parking spaces.

And uh kind of that's a little bit atypical, and why staff can support it is based on the other kind of four factors they mentioned.

There's substantial on-street parking on Eastwin.

Eastwind's a dead end road that only serves uh that only serves ionics right now.

Based on a conservative analysis by staff, there appears to be 20 off-street parking spaces there, and that accommodates the no parking areas for their truck maneuvering and and any sort of no parking for fire.

They we also have that future bus stop I mentioned for a future dash route that'll be directly in front of the site.

Hopefully, that'll encourage a few more employees to take transit.

They are committed to adding additional bicycle parking, and then also we have that eastern portion of the property I alluded to on kind of my opening slide.

That's 3.85 property to the east that they own that's for future campus expansions that they will use for parking should it become an issue.

Another factor I guess to throw in there is there's really no on-street parking anywhere around them.

It's like residential roads or anything.

So there's there's really nowhere for that parking to spill over to outside of Eastland.

It's gonna be you know, parking, I don't know, flag or something, and walking quite away.

So there's it's it's not really likely or reasonable uh that that that'll happen.

So for these reasons, uh staff also supports the parking reduction.

And with that, uh that concludes my presentation, and we're happy to answer any questions.

Thank you so much.

Are there any questions from council?

Councilor Jensen.

You mentioned they've done some work on lighting, and I just wondered um what exactly was done to try to keep the uh you know was the dark skies kind of uh that we are looking for.

Yes, all of their lighting fixtures are all night sky compliant, they're all 90 degree, uh, you know, directly aimed down.

Uh they added some parking lot, some kind of standard parking lot lighting.

Uh, and then the other addition were some new wall packs, wall lights on the bill outside the building.

Uh their photometric plan actually identifies the the most amount of light trespass they have on the properties from an existing light on the existing building.

None of the new lights actually uh worsen that existing condition.

So, in trying to do some research, I had never heard of ionics before, and so I was trying to figure out a little bit more about them.

And what I was able to ascertain is that even though the research helps prevent hazardous waste, you don't actually have on your site any hazardous or toxic waste.

That I just wanted to verify that.

That is that is correct.

Okay.

Uh we we build systems that process this, but we don't do any of the processing ourselves, and we have no toxic chemicals on site.

Uh, under no circumstances would we actually ever have handle any of this uh it's really engineering of these systems that uh is what we're involved in, but not the actual processing of the chemicals themselves.

So if you expand it in the future, you would never have the need to test out your engineering systems on actual hazardous or toxic waste at that site.

We would not.

Okay.

We also check with the fire marshal who does routine uh inspections and I forgot to write it down, but the the like the most uh I don't know what the combustible or the the thing on the site that they were that was it like compressed gas or something.

It's it's less than what they find in a lot of industrial manufacturing areas.

So we did run that by uh our our fire marshal.

Any other questions from council?

Council Judy.

Yeah, I have some questions.

Um did the planning commission um, I know they are didn't uh analyze the parking, but did they discuss it at their meeting?

They just had some questions, general questions about it.

Uh one commissioner that I recall.

Uh and we talked maybe a little bit about this.

This was November 12th, so I I don't I'm not remembering it the greatest, but they didn't spend uh a ton of time analyzing that given that they weren't the one making uh a decision on that, but they did recommend unanimously approval of the spar as proposed.

Okay.

Um one more question about the site.

Um it looks like there's two driveways on East Wind, right in the plan.

Yes.

And those are already existing.

They are.

I believe there's some planned improvements to the eastern one in the future, but they uh yes, they are existing.

Okay.

Um yeah, and just one more, you know, you you mentioned they were committed to future bicycle parking.

Could you elaborate just a little bit there?

They have committed to staff that there will be some uh additional bicycle parking.

Uh I'm hoping that we see uh both some kind of traditional bicycle parking, but also some interior bicycle parking for you know, kind of what I would consider like a long-term bicycle parking that's more suitable for employees.

Uh so that is something that's one of those kind of conditions of approval about the technical comments that we're still working through.

Uh, but feel free to reinforce that that request.

Yeah, yeah.

I I I thank the applicant for you know considering that, and you know, that's just part of food off the edge.

So love to see that.

Um, you know, any new building really try to put in bike parking wherever possible.

Um just one more question for me.

Um, what is the current zoning on this uh area?

The current zoning is M1 or industrial.

Okay.

And I think on the plan uh comprehensive planks of okay, perfect.

Thank you very much.

That's all I have.

Any other questions from council?

Mayor put them.

Okay, good.

Um thank you, Mayor.

And uh I think these questions are gonna be for the applicant.

Umer or or consultant?

Um consultant.

Actually, and the owner too, but consultant first.

Okay, hi.

And um I ask this of everyone who comes up, so it's just what I do.

Um so we're we're talking about the I thank you so much, and I I have been by there, I can't tell you how many times I've always wondered what happens in there.

So this is great to know.

Um I'm also glad you don't have any customers in the area.

Because that's it's just great to know we don't have things that nasty you know, locally, except for maybe Rocky Flatches, too.

Um the the treat preserving the trees, thank you for doing that.

We're the city's adding more trees just because it's so important and maintaining the the trees that are there, and I love the fact that you've um readjusted.

There was something I heard about accessibility where the new entrances for steps is what is what do we mean by the accessibility piece quickly okay.

All right, so I know it might be a little hard to read, but if you see these dark gashed lines, so there's accessible parking here, okay.

Um, and that has an accessible route right to our new building here.

Okay.

And then there are two accessible spots here for this building.

So they go up the little sidewalk here, come in right here in the entry.

And then there are two existing uh accessible parking spots over here for this existing building, and they just come up this sidewalk.

Is that answer your question?

Yes, thank you so much.

Yeah, um along those lines.

I see the EV parking there.

Yep.

Um and I try to ride my bike everywhere, and I've been out there a million times.

Uh we're still not a million, uh, a lot.

Um we now have a bike lane on the western side of 120th.

The we've got the intersection on 120th and baseline, uh, South Boulder Road dialed.

And um, I'm wondering where you propose to have the new bicycling, and number two, I guess will be a question.

So this will be for the consultant, and the second one will be for the owner.

Sure.

Actually, Tara, did you want to talk about bike parking where you were thinking?

If not, I can um I mean our thoughts my thoughts were in this area that we would I think that's what we had talked about at one time.

Okay.

And and the talks when it started of like interior parking.

I mean, this is all pretty open, so I don't exactly know it.

We we've had conversations about this.

We just haven't finalized it into the plan.

And I think mostly because I didn't realize it needed to be shown on the plan.

So um we have a lot of plan also right here.

If we highlight there, I mean there's a ton of open space right there.

So we just know that there's a lot of space on the site, and we're committed to making sure that this gets somewhere there wherever it makes most sense.

We've been working really hard to finalize these details of all where the cars need to be and um lost sight.

That's another layer.

Yeah, yeah.

So I think what Terry's saying is have some dispersed bike parking for the exterior um that gives uh occupants access to it at each building, and then in our new building, we have space in the front lobby there that we could put some of the um interior bike parking.

So and honestly, we have room in the interior lobbies of every building where bike people could bring their bikes inside.

So that is um that is a possibility that we just haven't explored yet, but I I appreciate it.

And this is sketch plan, so you don't I didn't expect any details, but since you're here, I'm just wondering what you were imagining just to get an idea.

Yeah, because I really appreciate even conceiving that idea.

And I guess for the owner, the question is because there's a lot of in uh organizational cultures that um view alternative forms of transportation and biking as part of the culture of the organization.

So I didn't know if that was this driven from the staff, or was this something you'd like to see more from the staff as uh considering alternative transportation?

I would say it's like mutual interest.

Okay.

Um we we would certainly as owners of the building and uh employ to encourage employees to use bikes, bicycling whenever they can.

Um we we have several employees that actually do in the summer uh ride their bikes to work, and uh I think the encouragement we we would certainly as a as a as a company philosophy encourage it.

I I believe that it's it's a it's a good idea, and uh and I uh uh once again that's uh it's it this is uh something that we haven't actually formally decided how to do it, but but my suggestion would be that that our company actually get together with the employees themselves and kind of make recommendations as to what would make sense for them because it's because the company will sponsor whatever they really would like to do.

And it's the type of company that we are.

Yes, and uh the reason I'm asking is that if you went whatever as the plan develops, I almost said we probably just me.

I would love to hear what you do come up with because bike routes to work are super important, and I I know some incomplete paths to that site, and I know some complete ones, so I'm just I would love to find out if they are something that's working for your employees and if there are any things you have to modify be because of the the access to that location.

I I also wanted to just add something else.

Um just gonna go all the way back.

Okay.

So I think you remember we were talking about this area as well as being a separate lot.

So the other item that we haven't talked about is that I believe you can remember, I think this is an abandoned railroad area here.

So the intent is that this will become a bike path, a bike trail in the future.

That's what we've been told.

Well, I didn't yes, and I didn't know if you knew about that.

So that would be one of the ways.

So then there's an easy, I mean, especially once this is developed, there will be a connection in from that bike path uh to the rest of the site.

Fantastic.

Yeah, and one last question, sorry, mayor.

No uh with the new vegetation that's coming in uh and the drought tolerant.

Is there was there any focus of any concern about the fire?

Like if it will help diminish the fire risk, fire risk.

You know, I haven't talked to our landscape architect about that, but I can.

Um was it something we specifically talked about?

But it's not a requirement.

Just curious if that came up to the case.

No, it's not something we specifically talked about, but I can I can bring it up with them for sure.

That'd be great to find out, yeah.

We're kind of focused on knowing where the risk is.

So thank thank you so much.

Can I offer one more for the EV parking?

We actually did talk about that.

There are several employees already driving EVs.

And uh the EV chargers that we selected are um able to be so that the company can offer that for free to the employees.

And we talked about that being a nice park that will encourage people for that type of alternative transportation.

So I just wanted to mention that as well.

Thank you.

Yes.

Any further questions from council?

I don't have a question, but I just want to say that the landscape plan and the use of water that was described is very exciting.

And I hope it can be a model for future development, and we can show what can be done uh by using the right plants and keeping water usage low.

So I'm very excited about that.

Seeing no more questions, uh, I think our next step is to discuss this.

And if you wouldn't mind just going uh step forward to the motion in case there is no discussion, is there anything that council feels we should discuss on this?

If not, motion is on the screen.

Council Friendland.

I just want to kind of echo, I think some of the sentiment I'm hearing from my fellow counselors that this is a really good plan.

Thank you so much for putting so much time and attention to it.

Um the EV parking, awesome.

Um, the clearly you're thinking about the biking, appreciate that.

The the attention to detail on uh drought tolerant landscaping.

Um just seems like you've really done a good job, and it's it's to be expected from a great lap yet company.

So um keep up the good work.

Thank you so much.

Any other counselors?

Anyone wish to read the motion?

Sure.

I move to approve resolution number 2026-02, approving with conditions and application for site plan and architectural review and parking modification for blocks 20 and 21 town site of Capitol Hill subdivision.

Second.

We have a motion, we have a second.

Is there any further discussion?

No further discussion.

Clerk Beck.

Can we please get a roll call vote?

Councilor Friedland.

I Councillor Gallegos?

Yes.

Councilor Giannola.

Yes.

Councilor Jensen.

Yes.

Mayor Tapia Vega.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Barnes?

Yes.

Councilor Bolier.

Yes.

That motion passes unanimously.

Thank you so much.

Uh we'll move on to uh agenda item H, which is the ground lease amendment for the Lewisville Tower.

For that we have our Chief Information Officer, Ernesto Chavez.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

Um I'm Ernesto Chavez, Chief Information Officer.

And uh this evening, uh presenting to you uh an opportunity to extend our ground lease for what we affectionately call the Lewisville Tower, uh, primarily because uh it exists on private property within the Louisville city limits.

So it's a hundred and fifty foot uh communications tower.

It was built in 1986, roughly.

It was constructed by the private property, Verizon at the time.

And in 2001, it was ownership was transferred to the city of Lafayette through uh uh utilities easement agreement.

Uh shortly thereafter, the city worked on uh a 20-year agreement, a ground lease agreement, and several other subleases uh which continue to exist today.

So there's one with the Boulder County, KGNU, the radio, and then we currently have T-Mobile and Verizon on this facility as well.

Um all those uh leases are intact, and uh in 2023, uh we brought to council uh the option to extend through 2026 so we could uh work out long-term arrangements for this site.

Uh we're continuing to work on what those long-term arrangements are, and uh so we've been working with the petite family over the last couple years, and uh we were able to negotiate an extension uh that goes through 2031.

And uh all the terms and conditions of the existing ground lease remain in effect from the original one uh back in 2003.

This is an extension and uh continues, it gives us some space to continue to provide services from this site.

Uh it is a very important site.

And uh Verizon and T Mobile uh provides those services primarily to the Lewisville community and uh the western-ish central part of Boulder County.

And uh Mr.

Frank Petit has already signed this agreement and uh we're presenting this to you this evening uh for consideration and discussion.

Uh the resolution also authorizes city manager to exercise the amendment if so approved.

And if there's any questions, I'm happy to answer those.

Thank you so much.

Any questions from council?

Councilor Fridland.

Just so I'm clear and understanding.

Um with this extension week, we would continue to explore what the long-term options are for this site and this lease through the 2031 would potentially if we found if we figured that out, we could transfer that.

So it's really just keeping it so we can keep doing what we're trying to do.

Correct.

Absolutely.

Continue negotiating and determine what the long-term strategy is.

Understood, thank you.

Any other questions from council?

Councilor Gianola.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, just a couple quick questions.

You mentioned that the Boulder County Sheriff is using this tower.

Um, there are any other public facilities stationed on the tower.

Um, so correct.

Uh the Bulba County Sheriff is one of their primary relay stations.

The city of Lafayette currently has two small antennas, but we're relocating those uh to uh property just to the east of that.

So um, but that's it from a public service standpoint at this time.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions?

If not, would you mind giving us a motion?

I move to approve resolution number 2026-03, approving a ground lease extension and amendment agreement between the City of Lafayette and Frank M.

Pateta pertaining to city-owned radio and communications tower facilities.

Second.

We have a motion, we have a second.

Uh any further discussion on this matter.

Seeing no further discussion, Kirk Beck, can you please make a roll call vote?

Councilor Gallegos?

Yes.

Councilor Gianola.

Yes.

Councilor Jensen?

Yes.

Mayor Tapia Vega?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tim Barnes.

Yes.

Councillor Bolier.

Yes.

And Councilor Friedland.

Yes.

That motion passes unanimously.

Thank you so much.

And with that, we conclude regular business for tonight.

And we move on to staff reports.

We'll begin with our city attorney's report.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

I wanted to let you know that I did send you an email earlier this evening with an update regarding our home rule um lawsuit uh regarding the strategic growth laws with the state.

That that is public knowledge, but I just want to let you know that I have sent you an update.

And so please reach out to me if you have any questions about that lawsuit.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Uh now our city manager's report.

Thank you, Mary.

Good evening, council.

So want to thank all those that put in a huge effort for our MLK Day celebration.

We estimate we had over 400 people attend, including all these lovely people in this picture, uh, including some of you guys itself.

So huge appreciation to the youth advisory board and the service squad um for really setting it up and um creating a seamless event.

So we're really happy to continue that event year over year.

Um, also want to make an announcement that our Lafayette Poet Laureate is open.

This is a two-year term, so this will be our third time appointing a poet laureate.

The application closes February 20th.

Um, the Poet Laureate will participate in public events, perform poetry, and conduct outreach to youth and adults.

They do receive a stipend of $2,500 for that term.

And um also responsible for producing, sharing, and promoting the poetry.

So they'll be appointed in late April after uh selection committee.

So please visit that website for more information and for the um application to apply, either yourselves or if you know any of our local poets.

Also, um, we sent out a um invite for our 2026 city council retreat.

Mayor Tapia Vega provide information to councils about that.

You will be um reached out to by our consultants, and we have tentative times, uh solidified dates but tentative times, but we think they're pretty close of February 13th from 3 to 7 p.m.

And Saturday, February 19th from 9 to 3 p.m.

And of course, an agenda with more details for the public to be able to come to that as well.

We'll be provided as we get closer to that event.

And then just a reminder that our land use code survey is open um until mid-next month, February 16th, and you can visit that link for the um survey.

Looking forward to January 27th next week.

Our workshop will focus solely on the land use code overview and update on February 3rd.

You'll have a proclamation for Black History Month, and we'll be doing an ordinance related to our Thomas Open Farm uh space lease and then a resolution for the Kensington sketch plan.

Thank you again.

Thank you so much.

We will conclude with council reports and we'll start on the screen tonight.

So Councillor Gianola.

Just want to thank the um the public who spoke tonight, and in particular, thank you to the um the Lafayette History Museum folks for uh you know bringing that to our attention.

I'm gonna try to make it on Saturday to the event.

Um, so thank you so much for raising that tonight.

Counselor Ollier.

I just want to say thank you so much to the leaders of the various boards and committees uh that I will be liaising with.

Uh, it made me feel extremely welcome since I just uh just got sworn in last week, so really looking forward to a series of conversations with them, um, but just very very professional and uh looking forward to working with them.

That's all for me.

Thank you.

Counselor Jensen.

I attended the opening of the Lafayette Collective art exhibit called balance, which were various interpretations of what that word balance means, and uh it was quite fascinating, the variety of interpretations, and I, as a person who grew up in a quilting culture and made baby blankets and such, never realized what a fascinating art form quilting can be and how much more complex it is, and it was really enjoyable, and I encourage people to go see the quilting exhibit, and it ain't your mama's quilt, it's very different.

Um, so I I want to encourage you to do that, and then I also wanted to say thank you to the Lafayette Youth Advisory Board to the elected officials who came from other cities to be with us uh during our celebration of Martin Luther King.

And um thank you particularly to Councilmember Gallegos for her liaison work with the Lafayette Youth Advisory Board.

I thought it was a lovely celebratory event and um something people look forward to every year, and it's always just so you know, it's it's easy to get angry sometimes, and it's good to remember the words of light and love shining out hate.

And so I was very pleased to be there.

Thank you.

Councilor Fredman.

Uh, not a ton for me.

Um, went to the first CML policy committee meeting um last week.

Um, not a huge amount to take action on just yet, but I think it's coming.

Um there is a legislative workshop on February 19th.

If you would like to attend, I will I will be there.

Um you do need to register ahead of time, so um, I think definitely um communicate uh with staff on how to get registered or reimbursed.

Um, and I think there's gonna be a lot between here and now uh of bills that CML will be wanting to act on in some way and things that will impact our community.

So um encourage you to come and learn more.

If you have any questions for me on that, let me know, and I'll do my best to keep you in the loop as things go along.

That's it.

Thank you.

Uh Mayor Proton.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh also want to thank you, uh, Councillor Jensen for um thanking Councillor Gallegos for all the work.

There was a I had lots of residents tell me that they really love the event as usual.

It's just uh really welcoming safe space for everyone there.

So thank you again.

And I truly enjoyed being there yet again.

Uh did want to we just had a DDA meeting last Monday, yes.

And uh want to ensure people know that in addition to the uh economic extensives provided by the city, the DDA has additional funds for smaller projects, and that is through the downtown improvement grant or the dig if you can dig that.

And then there is a creativity and cultural microgrant, and those are uh live on the um DDA webpage, which is supported by the city's webpage.

So that is just Google it when you get their downtown development authority page.

Uh one of the other things that you or just search it in the city web page book is also the annual report, which is one of the best looking annual reports I've seen in a long time.

And uh so I highly recommend just down or opening it up, taking a look at it.

You can even see a little bit of bios about who the people who are on the DDA and um their interests, and uh have an idea of what the DDA is doing to support not just Old Town, but the whole downtown development authority area, which goes all the way down south public road, goes all the way down to the southern part of public road and on the southern side of baseline out to 287.

So there's uh greetings coming from the DDA.

Uh just wanted uh people to know we are there will be more marketing coming up soon.

So we have it.

Thank you so much, Councilor Gallegos.

And I just wanted to echo the city manager and my fellow counselors, um, to thank everyone involved with the Martin Luther King Jr.

event.

Congratulations to the youth advisory board.

They put a lot of work into it and a lot of heart.

Everyone who came really enjoyed themselves, and it was great to see so many people having a wonderful time.

We had some great kids' activities that people were taking part in, wonderful speeches, and I also wanted to shout out a couple local businesses too.

So thank you to East Simpson Coffee for donating coffee and hot chocolate to the event, and thank you to Taco's III for deeply discounting the delicious breakfast burritos that people enjoyed.

So thank you again to everyone.

Thank you so much.

Uh three things for me, and I promise I won't be long.

The first one is even though we're not all up on this diet, it is nice to finally have our seventh member of council and having a full member.

Uh so uh actually I was about to call you Kyle, but uh Councilor Polier, it's nice to have you, and it's nice to have a full council.

So congratulations, it's nice to work with you.

Uh the second thing is I'm just gonna echo uh what everyone I believe has said at this point, which is the event, um, the MLK Day event was absolutely incredible.

Uh thank staff, I want to thank the volunteers.

I want to thank every resident who made it out, all the elected officials, not just from our city, but from around the region who came out to to volunteer, and of course the incredible youth advisory board.

I I've been to so many of these events because I I've I've been to them since I was a kid.

And two things about them.

One, they get bigger every year, which is amazing.

Um, and the other thing is that every year, regardless of how big they are, there's just such an incredible sense of community at this at this event.

Uh, it was just absolutely incredible.

So thank you to everyone, everyone involved.

And the final thing that I I feel I I have to talk about is we we should always celebrate incredible things that happened in the city of Lafayette, but I also feel like we have to celebrate incredible people that are doing amazing things that came from the city of Lafayette.

So I'm gonna take this moment to congratulate someone and celebrate someone who grew up here.

I I know him really, really well because I went to elementary school with him, I went to uh middle school with him, I went to high school with him.

We we worked at the state together, we sat on separate city councillors, city councils, but we sat as city councillors together at the same time.

Uh Kenny Wynne uh grew up in Lafayette.

He just like me as a Lafayette kid, we we knew we've known each other since the second grade.

And as of last Monday, he now serves over at the state capital as a state representative for House District 33.

Uh and I'm just so unbelievably proud of my friend and so unbelievably proud of that young Lafayette kid that grew up with me and now serves as one of our state representatives.

Uh I know he's gonna do incredible work for House District 33.

And overall, while he doesn't represent the city of Lafayette, I know that because he's from here, he's also representing the city of Lafayette.

Uh and with that, I will I move to adjourn to executive session pursuant to Colorado Vice Statute section 24-6-402, 4B, and 24-6-402EI to confer with the city attorney for the purposes of receiving legal advice on specific legal questions regarding annexation and to determine positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations, developing strategy for negotiations and instructing negotiators regarding potential annexation related agreements, all pertaining to the range of Lafayette annexation for the real property located at the southwest corner of Highway 287 and Arapahoe Road.

We have a motion, we have a second.

Uh any further discussion.

All those in favor, oh, actually, roll call vote, please.

Councilor Gianola.

Yes.

Councilor Jensen.

Yes.

Mayor Tapia Vega?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Barnes?

Yes.

Councilor Bolier.

Yes.

Councilor Friedland?

Yes.

Councilor Gallegos.

Yes.

That motion passes unanimously.

The City Council will adjourn to executive sessions and will not return to an open meeting of the time is 641 P.M.

Thank you.

She's trying to keep those on our toes by sweet