And we'll begin with Pledge of Allegiance.

Mayor Tati of Eggman.

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Barnes.

Good evening.

Counselor Bullier.

Good evening.

Counselor Friedland.

Here.

Counselor Gallegas.

Good evening.

Counselor Gianola.

Here.

Counselor Jensen.

Here.

Mayor, we have a quorum.

Thank you so much.

Tonight's first order of business, of course, is public input.

However, council, I will ask, just uh try to get general consensus.

Is would it be okay with you all if there's any opposition, obviously we won't.

But is there any chance uh the cemetery subcommittee could have maybe five minutes up front just to give a quick update and then we'll go to public input.

Right.

Seeing no opposition, uh, we'll give a quick update up front.

And actually, I was gonna say I go first, but I feel like I always go first when we talk about this.

So let me hand it off to uh Councillor Bullier.

Sure.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um happy Tuesday, everybody.

Thank you so much for coming.

Um just to the brief update.

So last Wednesday, June 10th, uh, we were privileged as a city to host uh community listening session and dialogue.

Uh so thank you to many of the folks in this room uh and nearly a hundred others who came out for that dialogue.

So we as a city harvested dozens of questions and concerns uh that that staff are diligently working on to answer in advance of the next cemetery-focused meeting on June 29th.

So at the Lafayette Library, 6 to 8 p.m.

on June 29th, we will have the second meeting uh focused on the cemetery, and so we're looking forward to providing as many answers as is feasible at that time uh in order to sort of take the next step in this process uh with you.

And Mayor, I'll turn back to you on the resolution.

But that's my update.

Amazing.

Yes, thank you so much, counselor.

Uh so I will echo the sentiments of Councillor Polier just thank you.

Thank you for the June 10th meeting.

Uh it was a meeting that was set to be informal.

It was it was built and kind of formatted so it didn't feel like this.

It didn't feel like a public input where you're just speaking to to council, and we're not being able to speak to you.

It was meant to be a listening session and a dialogue, and we wanted your voice to be heard.

We we truly, truly appreciate it.

Um that was kind of the point.

So we want to hear from you, want to keep hearing from you.

The one thing I will say is we we had a lot of people come out and sign up for the one-on-ones.

We want to make sure we keep encouraging you to sign up with one-on-ones.

If you were a plot owner, if you own know anyone who's a plot owner, please have them reach out to the city.

Uh the meetings that have already gone on through uh staff through the city and through the plot owners have gone really well.

We're really hoping to talk to as many people as we can that own plots.

So if you are a plot owner or if you know a plot owner, please have them reach out to the city.

Two other things that I will say, and the biggest one for me is misinformation is a very real thing I have learned over the past month.

Uh specifically when it comes to this issue.

Uh, there's been a lot of misinformation, and the only reason I'm touching on this is because over the last week I have received many emails and many calls of people that are telling me about information that they have received, and it almost always goes back to social media.

Uh but I just want to make a few things really, really clear.

First and foremost, resolution 2026-13 came to us on May 5th.

And unanimously, the council voted not to pass that resolution.

So, for once and all, I just want to say that did not pass resolution uh 13 of 2026.

Did not pass, it was unanimous, and as many people uh I I know a lot of people are are angry, they're they're sad, they're they're very passionate about that issue, but that resolution did not pass.

And the other thing is there's a lot of people that told me council is gonna take action tonight.

There is no action tonight being taken by council.

Uh we will not take any action on any resolution for the cemetery until after the June 29th meeting, which is our next meeting for the cemetery subcommittee, which our our counselor uh spoke about.

And the last thing I will say is we're really looking forward to June 29th.

Uh, there's so many questions that you all had for us, so many things that you all had for us, and we want to we want something tangible to come back.

We want to have as many answers as we can for you.

And with that, I will say that there will likely not be a perfect answer.

There will be some answers that just it's it's a difficult situation, right?

The the more we we research this and the more we look at this, we find that this has been deferred for a very long time.

These issues started long before I was even born.

So what we're doing now is trying to take responsibility as a city as a council and do the right thing.

But unfortunately, that may not be perfect.

But we will try to get as close to perfect as we can.

Uh so with that, we appreciate the few minutes up front for our cemetery subcommittee to give you all quick update, and we'll move right into public input, unless any other counselor has anything to add.

Fantastic, right into public input.

Uh as is usual, you have five minutes to speak.

Um if you want to speak, just fill out one of these speaker request forms.

They're in the back through that glass door and hand it over to our city clerk.

You will have five minutes to speak, and the little clock in front of you will tell you exactly how much time you have left.

If you're not here present and you still wish to speak to council, you can do that.

You can call us.

Uh there that phone number is posted on our website.

Um with that, we will begin.

Our first speaker tonight, we'll hear from Alan Garcia.

Good afternoon.

Under Colorado law, cemetery plots and personal property granting an easement of right of burial, not direct real estate title.

When cities misplace records, plot owners retain the right of internment.

The right of transfer ownership and the right to seek resolution are equivalent replacement plots.

Those three things the city has offered.

There are others that the city has not informed us on.

Certificate of ownership, original receipt or purchase of rights of insurment agreement, serve as the primary evidence of your rights.

And there is more to it.

But I don't want to run out of time.

If the city explicitly municipality cemetery was completely full by 1999, yet to sell burial plots in 2000, in 2001, it could be it can be held accountable for severe legal, financial, and regulatory violations, financial and legal liabilities, breach of contrast, contract, civil rights, consumer protection violations, and compensary damages for emotional distress.

If a city is found guilty in a lawsuit, the plaintiff typically pays for their own fees, unless a specific civil rights or fee shifting statute applies.

US courts follow the American rule where each party covers its own attorney fees regardless of the case outcome.

Federal civil rights claim.

If the lawsuit falls under federal status, like 42 USC, 1988, courts have the authority to award attorney fees to the prevailing party.

Specific state statutes.

Many state statutes contain free shifting provisions as the city violates a specific environmental zoning or public records law that explicitly allows that the city can be liable for your fees.

Bad phase contract.

A judge can order the city to pay your fees if the city acted in extreme bad faith, brought defense or using stalling tactics.

Excluding plot owners from a main committee usually stems from a desire to avoid conflicts of interest and or limited administration burnout.

However, plot owners absolutely should be a part of a committee or subcommittee to ensure decisions reflect the community's actual needs.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Next, we'll hear from Frank Occuleta.

Thank you, Mr.

Miller, Council members.

I appreciate for the last couple weeks back that you all went to the cemetery with me to see the areas that are open up there.

Okay, and also I'd like to thank Melissa Heisell.

She also attended.

So every council member did go.

Now staff did not release all the SWCA report information to council or to the public about the plots here.

I'm going to May 5th, City Council agenda memo.

The key findings of GPR survey included four bullet points.

This is on page five now.

Basically, to the executive summary, staff did not include, given the guessing of the graves in the cemetery, recommended that any excavation be undertaken with extreme care.

That was in basically your council agenda memo on page five.

Now, staff had SWCA environmental consultant ground penetration radar report since February.

This is the report right here since February.

And I do not believe you've all seen it right here.

But yet on this report, I'm just going to show you these are the grits right here.

There are nine grits.

Nine different grits right here.

I want you to understand nine bits here.

And what Doug Conro did, he went through the open records act basically, and he blew it up right here.

This is the map right here, that dov get.

Council, basically, if you can't get the information, perhaps maybe you ought to go through Cora through staff if you can't get information.

That was on March 3rd, basically.

Now staff must stop telling the TV stations, the news stations, and the newspapers that the cemetery is full.

It is not full, folks, and we all know that by now.

It is not full here.

I want to address a concern that I have.

Also, Doug went in the Open Records Act, the emails going back and forth.

From Megan Davis to Jimmy Storm and to Holly Norton.

And this is one of them.

We could get in a lot of public comment of this item, especially if Frank Archuletta drums up a group of people to come and to oppose this closure.

This was on the 28th of April.

I never received any information until May 1st.

I don't appreciate my name being thrown out to the SWCA or to the Holly and all that.

That's not the way to do proper business to conduct something like that.

My name should have never been thrown out because I didn't even know that you were going to vote on May 5th.

I didn't receive it to the first of May.

And this came out on the 28th.

Council.

Our voice does matter.

Council, it is time for action.

Council and staff.

It is time to repair the damage that has been done to the senior citizens who own the 270 plots at the cemetery.

It is time to allow coffin burials if the owner of the plots choose for the sake of democracy and for social justice council.

You must not pass resolution 2613.

Abolish the moratorium that has caused mental abuse, emotional suffering, pain, misery, hardship to our senior citizens and the families who own the 270 plots.

The effect has caused devastation to our community who believe a democracy and believe the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

It is time to restore justice.

Please, council, give the seniors a peace of mind.

It is time to defend our democracy and stand in unity, solidarity, and fight for the justice for the senior citizens who elected you all.

I know this is a hard issue, folks.

And I know you're all caught.

You're caught up in it.

But you must do the right thing, basically.

And I don't appreciate the way staff has treated you all by not giving you the information to make a proper decision.

Staff has basically denied you all information.

And we have all the proof for it.

All the proof at all.

So this here is the map.

Doug Conros had to build the Open Records Act, and we blew this up.

He's been working on it here.

And this shows, you want to walk by him?

It's all all the areas that are open.

And Mr.

Archelotti, your time is up.

Thank you.

Next we'll hear from Art Ortega.

Hello, my name's Art.

I'd like to thank Frank for being uh on top of this.

Uh he represents the salt.

And he's doing a great job.

Thank you.

Our family's been here since uh 1914 around there.

My uh grandpa, my dad, uh uncles, aunts buried in that uh cemetery.

I want to thank the council.

It's a beautiful little cemetery.

It's almost a little wildlife preserved if you go in there.

Birds uh everything that's been there since I was a kid.

It's beautiful.

My dad bought a uh two plots from two people that moved out of town.

They advertised in the boulder camera, did that about 12 years ago.

He was really concerned about his burial, so we did bury him there.

Uh I looked in that hole, and I'm an electrician, I've done a lot of digging.

It looked clean, everything looked clean right there, and so I'm thinking that it's situational.

Um, whether or not there's uh I guess bodies buried.

But as Frank said, uh, I think that um all the people who own a plot deserve uh to bury their loved ones there.

So thanks a lot.

Thank you.

Next we'll hear from Gary Posey.

Hi, my name is Gary Posey.

Later 309 sheet here.

And I was at the meeting, and I thought it went well.

Thank you for that.

And also I do have a personal meeting schedule, which I'm looking forward to.

Uh a couple things came up that I I don't remember if it was discussed or not, but it's been bothering me a little bit.

And how it came about was I got I don't want to get way off, but I got a letter from an email that said I was behind in my water.

So I called a guy up or the city, and they said, No, you're not behind.

Well, after the conversation, I find out this is all contracted out, our city building for the water.

So that got me thinking about the cemetery.

We have a historical place here.

Why is it contracted out?

Why can't the city take care of that cemetery?

I and I don't think that came up the other day, but uh I I a contractor is a contractor.

He's there to make money.

And I don't know where you guys get your input about what goes on at the cemetery, but I'm sure they have some.

And I just wanted to bring that up.

It was another question I don't think it came up, but I think it's one that the city should be running that cemetery, not a contractor.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Next we'll hear from Danelle Donelinger.

Tanell Dondelinger, I'm Gary's granddaughter again, and I just wanted to say thank you for the meeting from all of you.

And I just think the bridges and the gaps of communication have been really important, and it's really cool to see like that you guys care and that you listen.

And I'm just really looking forward to my grandpa's one-on-one meeting.

Like just from a personal standpoint, I've already seen his demeanor be able to change a little bit, and you guys have given him hope.

And so just thank you guys from like the bottom of my heart for that, and thank you for helping him.

Um, and I know that not all of you guys can make it, but even for the people who didn't have to be there who are on the committee who went, it really meant a lot to all of us to see you guys there.

Um, just advocating.

So thank you guys for that.

And I'm just gonna keep advocating for my grandpa and the rest of the people here, but if there's any way there could be a spousal amendment if your spouse is already buried there and has been buried there, if you could be buried with your spouse.

Just the spouse amendment would really help a lot of people, but I really appreciate you guys and all your efforts.

So thank you.

Thank you so much.

Next we'll hear from Michael Watson.

First of all, I'd like to start with him start off with an apology.

Um I know I can be a little bit intense, and I know I have been insulting to some of you.

Um I have my last time public speaking.

Uh I was in the military, and I think that that I'm scared when I get up here and talk.

I think a lot of people are, and please keep that in mind when you're listening to public comment.

It's a really scary thing to do.

And y'all make it look easy because you get up there and you talk every single night, and you're articulate and you're succinct and make good points and you're funny.

And I think for someone who doesn't do that on a regular basis, it's really hard.

And when you get a bunch of people coming out evening after evening for multiple months, telling you the same thing over and over again.

I really think you should listen.

And I'm I'm I'm not gonna get angry or upset, but I do think that this has kind of been a master class in a lot of things going wrong and how not to approach a situation like this.

This is a deeply personal issue for the individuals who have plots there.

Um I wanted to pivot just a little bit on the numbers and because I've I've heard multiple people say the cemetery is full.

And one question that I'd like to have added to the to the list of questions for the 29th.

When did this happen and how long it's been going on?

Because mathematically speaking, the last like we're looking if you put the cemetery out on a grid, and you like there's there's a distribution of unknown plots there.

And unless y'all have been going out in the middle of the night and like digging some holes and putting some bodies in there, the last unknown body got placed in there, what, the 1930s, 1940s?

That means every single time you go and dig a grave for the past 70 some odd years, that's you have an equal chance of hitting an unknown.

And check my math on this.

But if you have a like an uh random distribution of unknowns, and you're randomly putting new people in because the plots aren't really arranged by any sort of semblance or order in terms of the order by which people die.

But every single one of those is going to be placed.

There's a probability that it's going to hit one of the unknowns.

Every single time you dig a hole in that cemetery, there's a probability, and I'm not saying that it's zero, but I'm also doubting that it's a hundred percent, because if it were a hundred percent, we would have been hitting bodies every single time for the last 75 years.

And I hope to God that we haven't.

And that this for that to have to be happening, this is the first time you hear about it.

Um, I think the city would probably get in a lot of trouble.

But can we I guess this is the sort of thing, this problem is the sort of thing that is solved with conversation.

And when it's an artificial conversation, when it's I'm asking a question and I'm not getting a response for another couple weeks, if ever, it puts people, or at least it puts me into a defensive frame of mind where I'm going up there thinking y'all are the bad guys and these are the good guys.

And maybe that's not maybe it's not as simple as that.

I mean, I know that that you put something like a simple as a pane of glass between me and my neighbor on the road when we're driving, and all of a sudden, if they dare to cut me off or do anything that offends me, they are a monster deserving of death.

Um and this sort of setting simulates that, where like all people have been really been asking for is a chance to sit down with you as part of a committee, as part of a group, as part of a meeting, as part of a dialogue, and have a conversation, be able to ask a question, well, why is this happening now?

What about this specific thing?

Can I be buried with my loved ones?

Um, and get an answer right at that moment, case by case, and hear from the people who are who are who have kind of who've been in this and then and driving it for uh since what last November, October?

Um maybe get letters or emails sent over to the to the state archaeologist to get some clarifications and some of our statement, maybe pull some more information from SWCA.

Um we'll kind of echo.

I know I'm going all over the place.

I apologize.

This is why I stay angry because it's easier for me to be articulate.

Um maybe it would be possible.

If you look at the email traffic, the the bouncing around between city staff and and the state archaeologists and SWCA, I think there's there's some open questions there as to why it was done the way it was done.

And if anybody wants to sit down and go through all of those, I'd I please like I'm sort of second best coffee in town.

Um I'm not saying who the first best is, but I'm up there near the top.

So come on over and I'll happy to go through everything that I know and just have a conversation and maybe we can solve some things.

Thank you.

Up next we'll hear from Vicky Ewand.

Hi, I'm Vicky Elin, 3031 Simpson Street.

And I wanted to talk to you tonight about this uh water disconnection notice that I got today on my front door.

And um, not talking to you because I want you to solve my personal problems, but because I think that this is an issue that should be on your radar if it's not already.

Um so for some background, I get my water bills by mail, um, not because I'm freakishly old, but because I need paper copies or tax business tax documentation.

And so I didn't receive a bill in May.

And I didn't um realize this till I went to pay my bills.

Um again, too much information, but I pay them on the 15th every month, and um I thought, well, no worries because I'm gonna get a June bill soon and I'll just pay them all together, which I did um yesterday by bank electronic transfer.

And then I got that disconnection warning today, and it says, if I um do not pay my bill in full, plus a ten dollar late charge plus, and this cracks me up, a $15 charge to get this handy little notice.

Um, if I don't pay it by the end of the day on June 21st in five days, my water will be disconnected on the 22nd, and um it would cost $35 to turn it back on, and all of the documentation in here is basically just kind of a series of threats.

If you don't do this, this will happen, all this.

And so I'm looking at this and I'm thinking where's the part about like what the city can do and can the city help and what are my recourses other than this series of threats.

So I I sent an email to Jeff Arthur, our public works director, um, uh, and he um responded very quickly, very helpfully, and said some interesting information about they've gotten um quite a bit of chatter from people that bills are being they're receiving their bills in the mail quite late, and I believe their payments are also coming back quite late, and that electronic bank transfers can take as long as 10 days, um, which also screws up the system.

He also said that on June 8th, I had been mailed a notice that my um that my bill was in arrears, a $10 late fee, and that if I didn't pay it by June 15th, I would get this disconnection notice.

Well, I never got that.

I never got that in the mail.

The only indication I had that there was an issue with my account is this disconnection warning.

So I told Jeff that, and he said they were going to look into, you know, because I said it it feels really tight that you get a final notice, you've got eight days to pay it, or then you get this door hanger, and you've got six days to pay it, and then your water's just gone, you know.

And that is if I did the math correct, is only 45 days after somebody missed the deadline for paying their bill.

So um he said he was gonna look into this, and then I heard from Katie shortly before the meeting saying that this was also um her radar.

And I I wanted to bring this up because uh back when Christine Berg was mayor and the city was installing smart meters, um, there was a lot of uh chatter that some of you guys may remember from people saying that they were being billed incorrectly, they were being over billed, they were getting late notices like a week after their bill went out, and they were still protesting it.

So I and some other residents met with um Christine and the finance director, and we worked out um an ordinance to change the late fees.

I think they might be 30 days, I'm not sure about that, and also the disconnection um warnings.

And so I'm thinking that maybe that needs to be done again.

And Katie mentioned that maybe there might be a looking at the code, um, especially in light of how much our water rates are going up every year.

I mean, it's a sore subject to start with, and then if you know people are getting these disconnection warnings, I'm assuming I'm not the only one.

So thank you, appreciate your time.

Thank you so much.

Next we'll hear from Kathy Erickson.

Hello, this I'm Kathy Erickson, and um I have so many things that I want to talk to you guys about and tell you guys, and only have five minutes, and so I think one thing I want to say is I don't go up to the cemetery to visit my family because I I think they're there.

I know they're not there.

I go up there to honor them.

That's why we decorate when we decorate.

And um February, I was I was quite ill, and I had some um Valentine hearts up there on our graves, and uh I'm sure it's the city, cut them all up.

I saw pieces of them on the floor on the ground.

I didn't appreciate that because that's supposed to be sacred ground.

I wasn't able to go up and get them down.

But to me, my graves, and I call them my graves because that's my people.

That's sacred ground, just like the two little babies that my daughter and I picked up this year.

The the ground, the uh there's a pole uh circuit square around them, and there's two little babies, a set of twins that are buried there.

They were buried in 1914.

And then look, then I was up there a week later, and um they were starting to grow up again, and I asked the gentleman that was cutting with the weed whacker if he could cut down those weeds and if he could talk to his boss about when they go up there if they could do that, because those kids are being recognized and honored.

And he said he didn't know, but he would ask them.

So I think when something like that comes up, I think it should be important to the city, especially if somebody is coming to say these two little kids mean a lot to us, you know, and um they don't have anybody here to take care of them.

That the city should take a little bit of care for them.

Anyway, then the other thing that I wanted to talk to you guys about is that I've been doing a lot of praying about this cemetery thing.

And as far as I feel and believe, there's only really one way to solve this, and that's for everybody that owns a grave up there to go with the city and check their grave.

Whoever they need, whatever equipment they need, they need to be up there together to check that grave.

Because that's what the issue is.

Is there somebody in my grave or not?

So if they go up there together and they check in the grave, you're gonna find out.

And then it'll be all done, and we won't have to have any more meetings, we won't have to have any more fighting.

I don't know why the people that are in this in uh working for the cemetery now are so and I and I truly believe this are so against us citizens that they're not able to calm down and look at our point of view, because I don't think they are.

This is the answer, we're gonna close it, and that's it.

That's not the answer.

The answer is you prove to me there's somebody in my spot, and I will be cremated.

But if there's not somebody in my spot, then I deserve a coffin burial.

And uh that's what my answer is to the whole situation.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Next we'll hear from Haruka Watson.

Her glats in South Came Haruka Watson 708, South Carolina Avenue.

I have heard several people um talking about talking about like open space in the cemetery.

And earlier today I went through and took a little uh screenshot of the map that was sent out, and then found all of the available areas in the map.

And um can I like pass this around?

Is that okay?

Sure.

Okay.

In that tiny section there, there are 15 open spots.

And if you guys want me to, I can do this for the entire cemetery and see how many open spots I can find using the map that was sent out by the city.

Um I don't have much else to say.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

I'm not seeing any more uh speaker request forms.

I will ask, however, is there anyone present who would like to address council tonight?

Please come up.

I just make sure to state your name and address for for the record.

Thank you.

Uh my name is Aaron Eckoth at uh A11 Sundown Way.

I just wanted to say I was at the meeting on the 10th and I thought it was a good meeting to have with a good starting point to start that dialogue.

Um appreciate that.

I just wanted to say I'll continue to keep advocating for Gary Posing, that's what I'm here for.

So I think you know, you see the support that comes out for everybody.

Oh, I think that's cool to see the city rally around something and how important it means to them.

So I appreciate you guys taking the time to do that.

But um I just want to say like you guys keep fighting, and we'll keep fighting too.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Uh I will ask once again, is there anyone who hasn't had the chance to speak that would like to address council time?

Seeing no one else, I'll turn to our city clerk to see if we have any calls.

No calls tonight.

Great.

Thank you all so much.

With that, we will close public input for tonight.

Mr.

Mayor, okay, if we briefly respond just to the handful of folks on the cemetery piece.

Um would council be okay with us.

Well, I'm sorry, I was side chatting and I didn't hear what you said.

I apologize.

Counselor Bullier asked just to see if council would be okay with uh responding to a couple of the of the comments that were tonight briefly.

Counselor Burlier, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um thank you so much, folks, again for coming out this evening and sharing the updates.

Uh the the change in tone uh means so much because I I think you know we collectively missed the mark a couple months ago.

Not just staff, council too.

And so the the fact that we're hearing in your words and in your tone recognition that we're collectively navigating towards a better outcome means a great deal.

So please stay the course with us.

The 29th is coming up.

We are going to get to a resolution.

As the mayor has said, there's no perfect outcome, but please stay the course with us.

Um I did want to note there are uh one-on-one meetings available.

Um I would ask our city manager.

Do you know the phone number offhand, Katie, to set that up?

I can't doubt I'm looking to staff, but they're a lot quicker than I am.

Um, okay, sorry.

All right.

For folks, it's 303 604, 3511.

The city does want to dialogue with you one-on-one.

I think we set up approximately 30 following June 10th.

So we want to have those conversations.

Please have those conversations.

We are still going to have the meeting on the 29th, and several of the questions that were raised this evening, we will make sure that the team tries to address on the 29th.

So thank you again for coming out.

The 29th is coming up.

We're going to keep tackling this issue together.

Um, and I just want to have a special appreciation, Mr.

Watson.

It takes a great deal of courage to apologize in public.

So I'm really proud of you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you so much, Councillor.

Okay, with that, we'll move on now to consent agenda.

And we have a few items tonight, including agenda item A, May 19, 2026, City Council meeting minutes.

Agenda item B, May 26, 2026, City Council Workshop Summary.

Item C, first reading for ordinance number 12 series 2026, repealing and reenacting Chapter 30 and repealing Article 3 of Chapter 45 of the Code of Ordinances, adopting by reference codes regarding building residential fire, existing building, plumbing, fuel gas, mechanical, swimming pool and spa, property maintenance, energy conservation, electrical and wildlife resiliency regulations, and the 2026 Lafayette Colorado Building Code and setting forth related details.

Agenda item D, a motion authorizing a lease renewal agreement with 201 North Public LLC for the property located on 201 North Public and authorizing city manager to execute the agreement, and two items under agenda item E, items pertaining to water and wastewater facility maintenance services.

The first being a contract, direct discharge consulting LLC, on call repair and maintenance services, and the second being another contract, quantum pump and controls LLC on call repair and maintenance services.

Are there any items Council would like to pull tonight?

Not seeing any, I'll take a motion.

I move to approve the consent agenda.

Second.

We have a motion, we have a second.

Any discussion of this?

Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed?

Say no.

No one opposed.

That passes unanimously.

Thank you so much.

Moving on to proclamations, we have three proclamations tonight.

And for the first, I will turn it over to Council Belair.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh this one will be fun.

All right, so the proclamation is America 250, Colorado 150.

And there's a word in here that I have been practicing to say, so please bear with me.

Whereas the year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

And whereas the year 2026 marks Colorado's 150th anniversary of statehood.

And whereas Lafayette, founded in 1888, has contributed proudly and significantly to the history of our nation and our state for more than 138 years.

And whereas in 2016, the United States Congress established by joint resolution, the America 250 Commission to encourage observance of our nation's 250th anniversary.

And whereas the Colorado Legislature established the America 250 Colorado 150 Commission with Senate Bill 22-011, and the Commission has determined its mission is to celebrate Colorado by acknowledging the completeness of our shared history, honor that which makes Colorado unique, and strive toward a more perfect union.

And whereas it is appropriate that the City of Lafayette engages with our past and looks toward a shared future.

And whereas the mayor and city council of Lafayette thus encourage residents to create and participate in programs that will commemorate the history of our city, our state, and our nation.

Now, therefore, the mayor and city council of the city of Lafayette, Colorado, do hereby declare that Lafayette will engage in commemorative activities and encourage community members to take advantage of the resources available from the America 250 Commission, the America 250, Colorado 150 Commission, and the City of Lafayette to observe the Cesquis centennial anniversary by learning about Colorado's complete history, attending commemorative events, visiting historical exhibits, participating in public discourse, and by seeking opportunities for historic preservation.

Lafayette pledges to uplift, support, and generate commemorative opportunities.

So that word again.

We have a motion, we have a second.

Any discussion on this proclamation.

Councilor Gallegos.

So if you are looking for a commemorative opportunity to oops, is my mic not on, to celebrate 150 years, our summer reading theme this year is Colorful Colorado, inspired by the 150th anniversary.

So the summer reading program and all programs and author visits will be Colorado related this summer.

Thank you, Counselor.

Any other discussion on this one?

Great.

Say none.

Um favor, say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed saying no?

None opposed.

That passes unanimously.

Moving on to our second proclamation tonight.

Mayor Protect.

Thank you, Mayor.

Proclamation Juneteenth, Independence Day, June 19th, 2026.

Whereas President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863, declaring the slaves, the Africans enslaved in the Confederate territory free.

And whereas news of the end of slavery did not reach the frontier areas of the United States, and in particular the southern and southwestern states for more than two and a half years.

And whereas June 19th has a special meeting to African Americans and is called Juneteenth, combining the words June and 19th.

And whereas Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the abolition of slavery in the United States and the emancipation of African American slaves throughout the Confederate South.

And whereas the United States Senate and House of Representatives passed a resolution in 1997 to honor and recognize Juneteenth Independence Day.

And whereas more than 160 years after the abolition of slavery in the United States, there are still acts of violence, prejudice, and discrimination against people of cover color every day.

And whereas the city does not tolerate acts of racism, oppression, intimidation, harassment, prejudice, or racial profiling toward another individual.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the mayor and the city council of the city of Lafayette, Colorado do hereby declare June 19th, 2026 to be Juneteenth Independence Day.

We encourage all residents to commit to supporting a community of diversity and inclusiveness through our actions, our words, and our policies.

So moved.

Second.

We have a motion.

We have a second.

Any discussion on this proclamation.

Mayor Proto.

Thank you, Mayor.

I would like to announce that for the first year, the City of Lafayette is joining with the city of Longmont in a Juneteenth celebration that is a combined effort that hopefully we will be able to expand to other communities in Boulder County.

The City of Boulder has a pretty substantial program already set up, but we are doing and the city of Erie.

So we're joining with uh Longmont to have a celebration that starts on the Juneteenth day in the evening with two separate film celebrations.

And they will be conducted one in Longmont and one in Lafayette at the same time.

And we will be featuring films, four films in Lafayette, including one titled 2020 AD, a second one titled Bay and Solemn, a second one, a third one called Static, and a fourth one uh titled Mirror Mirrored America.

And then in Longmont, and we will have a panel discussion after the films are shown by these local artists, but then in Longmont, they will actually have a Sundance staff member there and a panel discussion about the short format film uh way of presenting uh concepts and ideas.

And I the film that I know that they're showing is called Birds and Bees.

It's about an African American uh beekeeper family.

Um so that is the beginning on Juneteenth that evening, and then Saturday, we will again join with Longmont and initiate the celebration in Longmont.

I believe we were starting at 10 a.m.

in the morning in Longmont with bands and uh speakers in booths and concluding before the hottest time of the day around 2 p.m.

And uh then starting in Longmont at 4 p.m.

series, sorry, we're in Lafayette and starting in Longmont gonna get it right.

Lafayette at 4 p.m.

Uh with uh the same bands, local uh restaurants and talent.

Um, and guest speakers who, if you go to the Longmont Juneteenth webpage, it now uh links to the Lafayette webpage, you can also see which speakers and a list of the bands that are gonna be playing there and local food and the the the theme, the overall theme that we have is I'm losing it.

Uh it's on our webpage uh on the Juneteenth webpage, but the the idea behind this is to help people understand the what Juneteenth is and how it can be used as a way to recognize better ways to build community.

So this is this is an effort to uh one more effort to build community in the local area.

So please join me at the uh Lafayette uh Juneteenth celebration.

Location.

The locate so thank you.

So the location will be uh on North Harris.

Harrison, thank you, North Harrison between Simpson and Geneseo, and uh in Longmont at Roosevelt Park.

So you can join both of those activities.

If you have more questions, uh please let me know.

Or uh LongmontJuneteenth.com should get you there to the link.

That was a lot.

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor Bright Time.

Uh any other discussion on this proclamation.

So none.

We have a motion, we have a second for Juneteenth Independence Day.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed, say no.

None opposed, that passes unanimously.

And for a final proclamation tonight, I will pass it over to Councillor Friedlith.

Yeah, um, this one is about pollinators, pollinator week and the mayor's monarch pledge.

I um tried to remove some of my grass this spring.

So I put stuff down, uh, put some mulch out.

Um I didn't plan anything else on it yet in the spring, but the one thing that I've let grow up, milkweed.

So I got milkweed all over the place, it's great.

So anyway, here we go.

Um pollinator week and the mayor's monarch pledge, June 22nd through the 28th, 2026.

Whereas pollinators, including native bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, birds, and other wildlife are essential to healthy ecosystems, biodiversity, food production, and a resilient environment.

And whereas native pollinators play a critical role in sustaining native habitats, yet many pollinator species are experiencing declines due to habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, invasive species, pesticide use, and climate-related impacts.

And whereas residents can support pollinator conservation by learning about pollinator importance, the protection and restoration of native habitat, responsible land stewardship practices, and using native and pollinator-friendly plants in neighborhoods and yards.

And whereas the city recognizes the importance of monarch butterflies and other native pollinators and supports pollinator conservation through habitat stewardship, restoration efforts, public education, and the incorporation of native and pollinator-friendly plants within parks, open spaces, and public landscapes.

And whereas monarch butterfly populations have experienced significant impacts due to the decline of native milkweed and nectar plants, pesticide exposure, and environmental pressures, underscoring the need for habitat restoration, conservation efforts.

And whereas the mayor of the city of Lafayette has joined the National Wildlife Federation, Mayor's Monarch Pledge, committing to support monarch conservation, promote healthy pollinator populations throughout the community, and whereas National Pollinator Week is an opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of pollinators and encourage residents to participate in pollinator conservation.

Now, therefore, the mayor and city council of the city of Lafayette, Colorado, do hereby declare June 22nd through the 28th, 2026, as Pollinator Week in the City of Lafayette, and encourage all residents to support and protect monarchs and native pollinators through habitat restoration, stewardship, education, and conservation actions throughout the community.

So moved.

Second.

We have a motion, we have a second.

Any discussion on this proclamation.

Councillor Jensen.

I just wanted to say the city has worked with Resource Central to create the garden to get a discount for our residents for the garden in a box program, which includes a pollinator box specifically.

So if you are a gardener, I last I looked, they still had some, but they might be out because we're getting out of the spring planting season.

But for future reference, if you are a gardener and you want to help with pollinators, you can get a discount on the garden in a box at Resource Central.

Great.

Any further discussion?

Mayor Pro Tem?

Thank you, Mayor.

I'd just like to say that this uh effort to, and I I think since I've been on council, we've been always focused on supporting our community.

And that goes from uh safety and justice and um when people are in need, we've been able to rely on partners like Sister Carmen, and I I really am happy to see that it is now uh reflected upon pollinators.

And uh when a lot of people really get concerned about the future of the ecosystem in our health, uh this is one simple thing that you can do to support your community is be aware of it, take care of them, and the the pollinators will do an immense amount for us.

We have a pollinator channel through Western Western the Denver area from the pollinator from the butterfly pavilion all the way through Lafayette and moving up.

And what we can do is what we should do.

Not everybody can make big changes in our community, but as long as the city is giving back to the community, and this community feels supportive, and when the community has needs, addressing those needs, and we when we have the capacity, there's one thing we can do to support our community.

I'm so glad that we've always done so.

And I'm going to stop talking because uh it's a little abstract, but I think this is one of those beautiful ways that we can support the quality of life and the sustainability and the resilience of our entire community.

Thank you so much.

Uh any councillor Gianola.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh I'll just give a shout out to the group that is partnering with I think the butterfly pavilion to do the pollinator district designation, and now the name slips my mind.

Friends at Cole Creek.

Um they also will evaluate your garden to determine if it qualifies as a pollinator district.

Um, and I believe some of our council members have pollinator district designation and their garden.

Um, but I saw recently that they put it put out an announcement that there's a new pollinator corridor in Lafayette.

So you know, if you get your your garden designated as a district, maybe you can help contribute to expanding that corridor, making a new corridor.

Councillor Gallegos, I saw your hand up.

Yes.

So I'm someone who suffers from pretty bad seasonal allergies, and I just wanted to thank the contributions of our pollinators.

I'd rather take local honey.

Sorry, local.

Local honey over allergy medication.

Absolutely.

So thank you, pollinators.

Thank you.

Any further discussion or comments on this proclamation?

We have a motion, we have a second for pollinator week and the mayor's monarch pledge.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Not opposed.

That passes unanimously, and that concludes our proclamations for tonight.

Uh we will move on to presentations.

We have three tonight, beginning with the Arapo Center Theater Rehabilitation Udate.

Uh we'll give them a few seconds to set up and we'll get started.

Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor Tapia Vega and City Council.

Thank you so much for having me here tonight to give you an update about the progress of the Arapahoe Center rehabilitation.

I'm here today with Heather Vaskin Vasquez Johnson, and she'll join me in just a minute.

I would like to give you an update to City Council regarding the rehabilitation.

This is just for informational purposes.

There is no action required tonight.

We'll touch briefly on the history, the design process, and then move into the architectural update and finally steps towards completion.

If you remember, six months ago, you approved a contract with the architect, and so now is a great time for me to come back and give you an update about that.

Starting with building history.

Well, it was built as a church in 1893.

The Arapo Center Theater is a great example of how adaptive reuse can help a community.

Beginning in 1918, uh, it was first used as a hospital in Morgue during the Spanish flu.

During the years following, the theater has undergone various changes, uses, and modifications.

You can see the timeline outlines all of the uses that the building has had.

Um, but we have um done various improvements.

For example, in 1986, a stage lights and seats were added right prior to it being used as the library theater.

Later in ADA accessible ramp was added to the rear entrance, and a new roof of uh wood shake shingles was installed in 2018, and the foundation was stabilized in 2020.

You may remember the need for rehabilitation of this beautiful building during your visit during the capital improvement tour.

There are concerns that will be addressed in the rehabilitation in the areas of accessibility, ADA, safety, sustainability, as well as and rightly so historic preservation.

As you can see, the light and sound booth, which is pictured on the far left, is very precarious.

The bathrooms are terribly outdated and not accessible.

The theater itself is not very ADA-friendly, and the historic elements like the stained glass windows and the beautiful woodwork could use some love and attention.

This rehabilitation project supports council out strategic outcomes, the downtown development authority Old Town Tomorrow Plan, and the Arts and Cultural Resources Strategic Plan.

For example, the Old Town Tomorrow Plan under Creativity and Culture states support the development of additional venues like the Starkey Building and Arapaho Center that provide space for community groups to rent and for special events as well as for city programming.

The Arapaho Center Theater sits in the DDA's Harrison Simpson hub.

Harrison and Simpson Street Hub, which goes down towards the historic main street of Lafayette.

It has a cherished character with both residential and commercial properties.

Efforts focus on drawing people from public road down Simpson Street and Harrison Street.

And historic preservation, rehabilitation, and adaptive reuse are critical to the success of that hub.

I'll touch briefly on the design process and how we got to where we are today.

This is definitely a multi-year project.

In 2023, we began working with a conceptual design team at the same time as working on the Starkey building design plans.

We focused on the Starkey building when the concepts were done, and the Starkey construction was finished in June of 2025.

We picked this project up again last summer, and we've been working with our partners in order to design a rehabilitation project that will serve both community and city needs.

Last December, I brought a contract to you for approval.

In January, I went to the Historic Preservation Commission and gave them an update on the project so they would be in the loop as we moved through these steps.

Through our RFP process, we selected the highly qualified Epstein UN architects.

Heather Vasquez Johnson is joining us today to give you an update on the progress of the project towards our architecture documents.

Thank you, Rachel.

Good evening, everyone.

Thank you for having me here.

As Rachel said, I am Heather Vestivus Johnson.

I'm a senior project architect with EUA.

I'm gonna call it EUA because that's easier than FCU and Architects over and over.

It is quite a special little building, and we always love the opportunity to help enhance and maintain the community asset, which this building definitely is.

Can you speak up just a little bit more?

Yes, sorry.

Sorry, I can absolutely speak up.

Just a little background on myself and my colleagues.

I am the only one here, but I have two colleagues back in the office who are helping with this project.

We have really a robust resume and background in historic preservation work, kind of varying from national register nominations to adaptive reuse and additions and kind of reconstructions of work.

Some of our notable things here locally are listed on the screen, but includes things like North High School, work at the Kess State Capitol Building, the Historic Ealage Theater, Denver Union Station, and the Crawford Hotel, and McNif McNichol Civic Center in Civic Center Park.

Very briefly, our process at EUA is kind of a four-step process of discover, design, deliver, and perform.

And we've really gotten through the discover process, and we are currently in our daily process.

So what we did as part of that discover process is Rachel mentioned.

That is really us getting to know the building and getting to know the program and understand what happens there.

So we went out, took a lot of photos, measurements, a digital scan, really heavily documented what we have here, as well as sat with Rachel, the current tenant, Lafayette Theater Company, to understand kind of how the building is being used now and how it wants to be used in the future.

And with that, looks like we have a little block out there, but we worked very hard to kind of go through and validate the work that was done in 2023.

We didn't want to throw that baby out of the bathwater, but wanted to really test and make sure that all of those things were still valid and still what we want to do here.

So really our charge from Rachel and from the team is that we wanted to remove the tiered risers and fixed seating and the stage and allow for the space to be used in a more modular and flexible way to update it for accessibility ADA and to provide an actual space for gathering in the lobby, as well as kind of a broad infrastructure update.

So on that, the first thing we did before we did any design work was hold a community open house.

Some of the boards that are on the screen here are things that we asked for input from the community on.

They ranged from things of what kind of activities would you like to see here all the way to what kind of seats would you like to sit in in the theater.

We got a lot of great feedback.

We have a lot of input on those design items.

We also heard very loud and clear from several members of the community that their biggest concern with the project was the proposal to put the addition on the rear and reallocate the primary entry from Simpson Street to the back of the structure.

Heard that very loud clear, a lot of concerns that that was in violation of the Secretary of Interior Standards.

So these Secretary of Interior Standards are what we use when we evaluate a historic building for work.

And they issue guidelines on all four of the treatments that they have for historic structures.

There's a lot of words here.

There are four treatments preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, and reconstruction.

In summary, preservation is retaining that structure exactly as it is and just with work there.

So if there's any kind of architecture geeks out there, falling water is a great example.

It's still leaking like crazy, but they are doing what they can to keep it from falling into Pennsylvania River.

That's all they're doing to it.

Rehabilitation allows for adaptation and alteration to maintain continuous use of a property while still maintaining those elements that are historically significant.

Restoration is returning property back to how it existed at a moment in time, usually what is determined to be the period of significance.

And reconstruction is rebuilding something that doesn't exist.

So for example, the reconstruction at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

It burned down, they're building it back.

This project qualifies as a rehabilitation project, and those are the standards that we will use.

It's no longer its original use.

We are proposing an addition.

We use these standards for how we approach the project and how we design the project.

The two that kind of fall directly into this project are nine and ten, which talk about new additions and adjacent kind of related new construction.

In that, we also frequently reference preservation briefs that are put out by the National Park Service, who kind of mandates the Secretary of Interior Standards.

The key one that we use is preservation brief 14, which talks about guidelines and additional standards for additions to historic structures.

The ones we've pressed out are rooftop additions, we're not going there.

But really, the idea is that it is simple, unobtrusive in design, is where possible, not highly visible from the public right-of-way, like a rear or secondary edition.

Materials and color should be harmonious, and the addition should be smaller and be subordinate to the historic structure.

The National Park Service Sector of Interior Standards are intentionally vague, and they are intended that way for communities and historic preservation commissions to interpret them for how they best suit those community needs.

So with that, and knowing that the concern was related to ADA accessibility, our first item of due diligence was seeing if we could, as a community suggested, accommodate an ADA ramp on either Guff Street, Guff was what was suggested.

And in summary, we cannot.

As you'll see on the plan, that red line is the property line.

Hopefully, this will work and not on the screen.

The red line is our property line, and so the building along Guff Street butts up right to that property line.

So the only way to accommodate any kind of accessibility would be to take over the public right-of-way.

Typically, that is something that city engineering and public right-of-way do not like, do not care for.

And then we have an issue with maneuvering clearance for someone in a wheelchair that the existing opening is only five feet wide, each door is only two and a half feet.

So we would have to make those doors mechanical with a push button, and they would both have to open simultaneously in order to allow adequate space for someone in a wheelchair or needing that extra space to get in.

We also feel from a historic standpoint that it starts to take away from the historic structure by having that ramp and those rails on the street.

Also, in our due diligence, not suggested and not recommended.

We said, what if it happens on Simpson Street?

Same kind of consideration.

It leads into the public right-of-way.

The grade drops off significantly as you head to the east, which means that our ramp gets longer and requires a switchback.

So we get kind of double, double the ramp, double the handrails.

Really not a great solution, and something that really detracts from that primary facade on Simpson.

So in our next kind of phase of work, we started to take a look at that original site concept diagram, which with an addition in the blue box and the entrance where that red arrow is shown.

And in studying that from a massing standpoint, it's a very valid, a very common approach to putting an addition on a historic building is to essentially kind of think of it like a play-down extrusion.

And the building just stretches, you match that form of the gable roof, the same shape, similar proportions, but you tuck it in, you make it a little shorter, make it smaller.

This works, it would be fine.

We feel like it would have been approvable, but we started to question if we were missing an opportunity with the site being on a corner and having great visibility from Simpson down the Gough Street side.

And kind of borrowing some of the feedback that we got from the community, thought about well, what if we take that form and we rotate it 90 degrees?

So we studied that.

We still have the same form, the same gable, the same proportion, but we flipped it 90 degrees so that that primary entry can now be off of Guff instead of off of the backyard or off of the alley facade.

So this is kind of where we are now.

We are in fully deep in our design phase.

Staff is reviewing that now, and we should be slated for the July 6th meeting.

But the addition on the rear stairs.

Here is our site plan.

We are working very closely with our engineers to make sure that we have an ADA compliant parking space off of the alley.

We will be replacing the curb cuts in the alley and at the corner to be current Pro Wag standards.

And then our red dashed line shows you what our ADA path would be from the public right-of-way and that parking stall with a very gentle ramp that goes up through the back to an outdoor gathering space and then into the primary and front door for the addition.

This is our current plan.

As you can see, everything kind of to the left with kind of the grayed out walls is our historic structure.

And while the historic preservation commission purview is only on the exterior, there's so much valuable historic fabric on the interior that we felt like it was very important to preserve the volume, the space, and kind of the shape of that performance space as much as possible.

With kind of the rotation that we've done with the mass on the back, we have been able to set back the addition eight feet from the historic structure, which visually again makes it look smaller and more subordinate and has allowed us to create a little connector piece between the historic building and the addition that kind of helps bridge that gap.

We don't have a plan included in here of the second level, but this allows us to have a stair up to a mezzanine and a proper technical booth for whatever performances or shows need to happen up there, two ADA compliant public restrooms, as well as kind of our entry and lounge space.

One of the things that we're very excited that we were able to do is you know, whatever we try to do, and in working with standard 10, we try to make any addition removable in the future if it ever needed to be.

And so trying to make as light of a touch as possible.

We're very excited that the single door from kind of the vestibule from the lobby into the performance space, we're able to reuse the door that exists today.

We can keep the two windows on the south rear facade.

One of them will kind of get blanked over for the stair, but the other one that's closer to Guff Street will be able to remain open, and really trying to keep that as light of a touch on the historic property as possible.

We have studied and worked with Rachel some options for how this space might be used.

So both of these are two theater configurations with a stage that is modular and portable.

We have also shown an option for portable ramp for any kind of differently abled performers, as well as a on the left, a stageless kind of in the round performance or lecture area.

And the item on the right is the setup for a film screening with a projector screen and seats.

These are two kind of our north and south elevations.

The north elevation again is kind of the primary key historic feature.

The work there is very limited.

We'll do some maintenance work on the siding, but mostly we're going to reconstruct that corner column that holds up the porch.

If you've seen it recently, it's a little wonky and it's missing a lot of its detail.

So we will have that recut in the historic profile, give it a proper foundation, and then rebuild the stairs so that they fill that space better.

And then the one the elevation on the left is the elevation of the addition.

And this is the Gough Street elevation.

The items that you see in red are items that we will remove.

We're going to take off the conduit that's exposed as well as where the old book drop has been boarded over.

And then you can see our smaller subordinate addition.

Our strategy with materials is to lean onto what is there already.

So we are proposing a vertically installed wood siding that rather than being painted like the historic structure, we will let express its natural wood tones.

And then we're going with a dark-toned standing seam, metal roof, and then wall cladding connector.

And these are some very kind of early working renderings that we've been looking at.

So this is our view from the corner of Simpson and Guff.

And then what the entry to the theater is starting to look at.

So I'll hand it back to Rachel.

Thank you.

Thank you, Heather.

So here's a review of our timeline.

Next month we go back to the Historic Preservation Commission to meet with them and request the certificate of appropriateness.

That packet of information has already been turned into them, so they can be prepared for reviewing that.

Following development of the construction documents, we move into the budgeting stage.

We hope that the rehabilitation of the Arapo Center Theater will allow it to shine as the gem that it is, and a beautiful anchor in the heart of the original downtown business district.

And we hope to provide space for theater, film, and a functional, welcoming, accessible gathering space for future community events.

There is an event there this Friday.

It's a film event, and so I invite you to come and see the film there in its and the Arapaho Center in its current configuration.

But we are very excited to see the results, and Heather and I are happy to answer any questions that you might have at this time.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Questions from council.

Counselor Gallegos.

I had a question about the stained glass.

Is that all going to be preserved?

And I remember at one point, I think the Capitol Improvements Tour, there was one window that was damaged.

So the stained glass windows will receive some care.

I know that Heather's team is working on some plans for that.

Yeah, there's a report that's already been done on kind of the scope of those.

They're already really well protected from the exterior with a storm window.

We're going to clean them up, have them repaired as needed.

And then we're also proposing adding an interior storm window so they kind of get sandwiched between two pieces of glass to help preserve them for hopefully eternity.

Yeah.

Great, thank you.

They are really painful feature of the building.

Aren't they leaded?

They are, yeah.

So that's another reason for adding that additional layer on the interior, is just to kind of sandwich that kind of undesirable material so that you can't go up and touch it and look at anything cross.

Okay, other questions are Councillor Janola.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

Really informative.

Early on, Rachel, I think you talked about some sustainability features.

Can you just give us a little bit of highlights there of what's in the works?

So the addition will be built under the new proposed code and will contain a lot of the sustainability features that are entailed in that.

Yeah, yeah.

We're aware that this city is adopting the 2024 series of I codes, the Metro Cohort Code, as well as any adoptions.

So we've been working towards that.

We're looking at ways that we can improve the efficiency of the historic structure without damaging any of that fabric.

The infrastructure will all be replaced.

This building will go electric.

We're going to cap the gas, have all electric services in it, low flow water fixtures.

We've been working with Rachel and the city on kind of the approved plants for the yard and make sure we have all of that, and then everything will be set up so that the building will be solar ready and EV charger ready for those to be installed in the future whenever the city feels it's necessary.

Can you talk a little bit about the materials and equipment that are inside the building?

Is there a plan for how that might be reused or you know the the old uh seating and that kind of equipment?

I don't think we've gotten to how we might deal with that.

Um I think that the furnace and the AC unit are probably near the end of their natural life and are about ready to be replaced anyway.

Obviously, whatever seating, the seating was installed in the 1980s, um, and it may also be beyond its natural life.

I don't know that the comfort is there anymore with degrading of the cushions and things like that.

Okay.

Thank you.

Councilor Friendland, did I see your hand?

Uh yeah, thank you.

Um so I know we went to HPC in January, right?

I gave them an update about the project where we were in the process.

Got it.

But they haven't seen this yet.

No, so this goes ahead of them for the certificate of appropriateness.

And as part of the way the process works with the city of Lafayette, it wouldn't um they there's a set time for them to review those documents in order to evaluate them and then um decide what requirements or changes they might request.

And it's at like a uh specific time and design.

It is.

So you're probably not there yet.

We well, we'll see them in July.

Yeah, you are you're you're just we are there.

They've received um Andrea Mimna has received the packet of information, and so we will have um a similar presentation for them for the certificate of appropriateness.

And I know that they just had a presentation on the Secretary of the Interior standards, so hopefully they'll be well prepared for that conversation.

Can I just ask about that?

So what I'm hearing, right, is what you heard in the open house was that the shifting of the entrance from one place from the historic place to a new place is of concern.

However, the Secretary of the I'm kind of checking to make sure I'm understanding the Secretary of the Interior Standards.

Um it's not that like functionally you can't do that.

You can change the entrance as you wish.

However, the architectural features that are of historic significance, you couldn't like take the entrance and like move it to the side or something.

Like you have to keep the entrance as it is, but the function of the entrance can be moved like we are proposing here.

Correct.

There it's it's layered.

Um I think uh the Secretary of Interior Standards and the subsequent preservation briefs recommend using the historic primary entry wherever possible.

Um, but particularly the preservation brief, I think 32 on uh accessibility on historic buildings acknowledges that for buildings, particularly ones of small scale, like this one, and this is the size of a home, uh, buildings of small scale, that is not always possible or functional.

Um so you know, they they discourage a rear addition, um, but they acknowledge that that is sometimes a necessity.

Um, and we feel like kind of taking that addition and not putting it on the south facade on the true rear, but instead putting it on the west and along still a public right-of-way is a better solution.

Okay.

And help me through, I guess.

Are you at a place where sort of the materials that you put in here are sort of where you're you're thinking that's gonna be the materials that like that's the proposed materials, that's not just a mock-up.

No, correct.

Um, that is what we've submitted to historic preservation.

Uh, if they have opinions and suggestions for change uh necessary for approval, um, we'll certainly expand upon that.

But um, yes, that's what has been submitted, and unless there's a requirement to change it, we'll proceed with those.

Yeah.

I I'll be very curious to see what they say.

I mean, I guess was the materials of the day a metal roof and exposed wood.

Like, is that consistent with the time period?

It's well, it's not, and the historic um the Secretarian State Interior Standards, particularly the standards for additions, recommend that an addition remains identifiable as time.

Um, and so the standards really kind of discourage copying and mimicking and trying to match perfectly what is there historically.

Okay.

To kind of loop in the sustainability question, one of the things that we will be asking the HBC to approve are some alternates for the roof.

It's currently cedar shingle.

It is not wearing well.

As Rachel said, it's recently been installed and it looks pretty poor.

It's not performing the way that it should.

There are also kind of long-term concerns with that being a city asset that cedar roofs are frequently not insurable because they are a fire and a hail risk.

So we have two options of things that have been approved in other historic preservation districts that kind of meet that intent, that exposure, that look, but still meet all of the requirements for Class A fire and ale readings.

Understood.

And so the historic entrance is now going to be used for like accessing for a green room, sort of, or is it still going to be used in any way?

So it could be used by the performers.

It could be used if it was a private event, you could access that space.

It's just not feasible to make it a public an ADA entrance.

Will really detract from the front facade, which is what we really want to preserve as part of the beauty of that building.

And using that as a secondary entrance, we do not have ADA requirements for secondary entrance.

Okay.

Great.

Thank you so much.

I I'm really excited about actually having that pillar restored and having the stairs redone, removing the book drop from when it was a library, and having it really look like a beautiful old building that it is.

Yeah, and the the modular space inside is going to be amazing too.

I mean, the amount of things you can do with that are going to be a lot more.

We got a lot of great community feedback about that too.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Any further questions from Councilor?

Counselor Bullier.

Just very briefly, I could not be more excited about this.

This is going to be such a restored jewel in our city's crown.

So I'm very excited to see how this unfolds.

We're excited about it too.

Thank you.

Councillor Gianola.

Yeah, just one more question about the book drop.

Is there a historic aspect to that?

And removing that, is that I mean, how long ago was the this building used as a library?

For how long?

I mean, is there a reasonable?

It was used as a library.

Um let me pull out my notes.

Um a couple of different times in its life, and um it was added.

Um it doesn't really go anywhere, it's been boarded up and sealed, painted over, and really mars the original um building facade.

It's kind of large and clunky looking on the side of the building.

I don't know when that was installed.

Um I would imagine it was installed in the 60s, maybe.

Um that was the second time it was a library.

So I suspect there's nothing cool left underneath it, and it's just been kind of covered up with with plywood and painted.

Yeah.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Counselor Jensen.

I I don't have a question.

I think this is a very attractive project.

Um I'm very excited about it as well.

I'm excited that we might get rid of the fire-prone cedar shingles.

Um I also see it potentially as a revenue generator in its newer form where people might have weddings there or other kinds.

Is that anticipated, or will it only be uh as it currently is now the theater group?

No, it is anticipated that we would be able to lease the space for private events and also expand the use for um public events around uh city programming or uh other partnerships.

So currently the theater company of Lafayette is the primary LEC, and we've also had a lot of requests from other organizations like the Juneteenth Planning Group as well as the Lafayette Electronic Arts Festival, which did host events in that for their festival this year.

So there were a lot of requests around this building, um, and there is a potential that it could be a revenue generator offset some of the cost for operating the building.

So I have another question about the disability access.

So I go a lot of places with my dad who uses a scooter.

When you get in, do you have a place for scooter storage in there?

Or uh what how will somebody who I I mean wheelchairs are not too big, but scooters are kind of big and obnoxious.

Uh how will you accommodate that for the ADA requirement?

So I think that it if the person needs to stay in the scooter, they certainly could enter the pro um performance area without a problem.

And because the theater seating and the stage are all modular, we'll be able to accommodate wheelchairs and scooters in the theater area.

We'll be able to move chairs very easily.

Currently, on the platformed seating, there really isn't a place where a scooter would even fit inside that building.

Um if the person wants to leave the scooter or like strollers, for instance, I would imagine that we would be able to have some area of the lobby space that would be able to accommodate that.

Well, I think it's very attractive, and thank you very much.

Councilor Fredland?

I just have some money questions.

Maybe this is not the right time for it, but um I was able to go back through a variety of our minutes looking back at this project, and the way I'll describe this is kind of uh boiling of the frog.

Not to say we don't have a great product right now, but I'm curious.

Like we went from like a hundred thousand dollars at one point around structural assessment structural assessment foundation a number of years ago.

Um we had like 850,000 in a CIP for a while, I believe.

And then, you know, I think then for ARPA, we were looking at like one and a half million.

Now I think I don't know exactly how much we've spent on design or plan to spend on design, but looking at this project, it is beautiful.

It is a it is a nicely designed piece.

Um, it also looks expensive.

Um what do we have budgeted for construction?

So currently we don't have anything budgeted for construction.

We have some money earmarked um that was from a previous um project in the city of Lafayette, and uh we'll work through the budget process with our budget team with our finance director and with the city manager to um come up with the best budgeting for it.

We'll also be able to access some history colorado grants around um restoration, and then there's some other grant exploration that we'll be doing as well.

Do we have a rough order of magnitude?

Did we give a budget to our design firm?

Yes, we have a contract.

Um yeah, right, but in terms of like design us a building that costs this much to construct.

Do we do that?

I don't know if that's no, we didn't because the I and a building that's old, really.

There are so many unknown variables that once we get into looking at what it will take, we needed to have you know, probably have a little leeway around that.

But it did have some uh foundation um remediation done in 2020 with a grant, and I believe the roof was covered, the roof that was done a few years ago, almost 10 years ago, was covered by a grant.

So uh while money has been invested in the building, some of that was um covered with earlier sources.

And where will we after we get um historic preservation approval and that COA, we will kind of continue our design development phase, which gets us about 60% through our documents, um and we have a cost estimating consultant that will be putting a cost estimate to that for us so that we have an idea that we can share with Rachel kind of where we're landing, and if we need to look at scaling things back a little, we can do it.

Councillor Chunston.

Uh is it your plan on the utilities?

Uh you said it was all electric.

Um is there ductwork in there now, or do you have to create that?

There is ductwork currently.

Um the furnace is currently in a very small section of basement uh underneath the historic structure.

The ductwork runs underneath the floor and is distributed through the risers that hold the seats.

So we are getting all new kind of air handling unit and mechanical systems, so we will be kind of reconfiguring the ductwork.

The goal is to take the same approach and to feed it from below rather than run ductworks through that really beautiful space and try to feed it from above.

It's more efficient that we'll do.

Yes.

And I just, you know, you probably already know this, but there are some energy grants that if you're going to a more efficient system that might help pay for some of the things.

So I just took it Yeah, we're here to help Rachel and team with any of those grants that we can help source.

Any further questions?

Mayor Proteb.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just had a question about the acoustics.

And uh with the covering of the stained glass windows, I was just wondering since it's in a residential area, so for out 13 across the street.

Um will there be a change in the acoustic integrity of the interior of the building, keeping out extra sounds and yes, we're actually hoping to improve that significantly.

Um it doesn't have great acoustics currently, there's not much in there to absorb that material.

Um, so we have a consultant that is looking at that with us.

Um, adding the liner to the uh stained glass windows will help with noise transfer kind of from the exterior in and from the interior out.

Um, but we're also looking at some very kind of historically sensitive ways to add acoustic treatments within that space to make the sound quality better.

Um, some of that includes like we're gonna add motorized draperies so that when it's showtime, the draperies close, they'll have an acoustic liner so that those drapes can really absorb a lot of that sound to prevent the reverberation through the space.

Wow.

And one other question the steps.

Uh are the steps they right now, they seem like they're really steep.

Are they gonna get stressed out?

Or are they the stairs at the entrance, the ones that are in a more when you go through the main existing ones or the new ones?

Uh the the when you reconstruct the ones off of Simpson, those those um they are all within kind of code requirements.

So there's a little bit of variation on that bottom step with great, but they're all gonna fall in that standard code requirement of seven inches high, eleven inches deep.

And they are they already in that standard or uh they're a little bit off.

Um they're a little wonky, they've settled, um, so there's some inconsistencies there.

You also have to step from the landing over the threshold into the door.

We'd like to bring everything up.

Yes and I was like that's a non start.

Okay, thank you so much for straightening those out.

Magic is the word that comes up when I look at this.

So thanks for bringing them back.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time.

Okay, not saying any more questions.

Thank you so much.

Thanks.

Thank you.

We will give them a second to set up and move on to the second presentation tonight.

Umdate.

I will turn it over to our sustainability director.

Good evening, council.

So tonight I will be providing an overview of the sustainability department's activities for 2026 and also opportunities related to the extender producer responsibility program.

In tonight's agenda, you will be hearing a department overview, some of those year-to-date accomplishments, looking ahead for the remainder of the year, as well as the extender producer responsibility program.

So, first things first, I wanted to provide a departmental overview.

The purpose of the sustainability department is to create a sustainable, healthy, equitable, and resilient community where all people and the natural environment thrive while adapting to a changing climate.

Our scope of work is generally covered through the climate action plan.

This was approved by council in August of 2024.

It has seven sections.

I won't read all of them, but anywhere from energy all the way to community resilience and air quality.

The timeline of the department, it started back in 2019 when the first sustainability position was created.

The first sustainability plan for the city was adopted in 2021.

That is also when I was hired.

The first sustainability plan report was in 2023.

And we were able to hire additional staff in 2024 to support the implementation of the climate action plan.

And 2025 and beyond is solely focused on implementing the climate action plan.

I'd also like to remind council that the sustainability department did publish a 2025 climate action report earlier this year.

It does cover each section of the CAP and also highlights in our departmental accomplishments.

For example, last year, the fire department implemented composting at both of the fire stations.

Next, I'll review some year-to-date accomplishments.

So I won't read this entire list, but I will highlight a few on here.

So first things first, we did install new bike racks at Starkey.

Bike parking has been an issue along public road, so we are very excited about that.

You also may recall Eddie, our water efficiency ambassador.

You'll continue to see him swimming around Lafayette throughout the summer as he navigates educating the community on water efficiency.

I also wanted to highlight some EarthMonth activities.

So within April, we engaged over 3,000 individuals, had three presentations, five community events, over 150 HEPA air purifier applications.

I want to give a shout out to Lisa Evans, sustainability specialist and Delaney Campbell with the fire department who spearheaded this program.

Over 28,000 pounds of hard-to-recycle materials were collected during the annual event.

And we also continue to manage a city managed bike valet.

You may have heard about growing shape.

This was a pilot in partnership with Boulder County and Play Boulder Foundation.

We were able to distribute 80 trees and 30 shrubs in the neighborhood highlighted on the screen.

This neighborhood was chosen because it has 20% or less tree canopy and also is a disproportionately impacted census block.

We are planning for a 2027 expansion, so keep an eye out for more information on that.

Looking ahead for the remainder of 2026, again, there are a lot of projects on the horizon for the sustainability department.

I won't go through all of this list, but we'll highlight a few.

The first is the urban tree canopy inventory.

This launched last week.

We're really excited to get this data to be able to proactively manage our canopy.

Secondly, we have biking infrastructure improvements.

Staff recognizes that this is a community priority in enhancing our current biking infrastructure.

One project in particular that I'm excited about is in partnership with economic development and installing a bike corral in our historic downtown.

Equally, we are also excited to learn from our neighboring communities on their implementation of B-Cycle to learn if it's something that's feasible in the future for Lafayette.

Thirdly, and in honor of the pollinator proclamation earlier tonight, the Sustainability Department and Open Space Division is continuing to work on a citywide pollinator district designation with Friends of Cole Creek.

Lastly, the Sustainability Department will be launching a community resiliencer later this month.

It will consist of mailing out a postcard.

We'll have information on our city web pages as well as a Lafayette Listens webpage.

Our graduate student advisors will be attending several community events throughout the summer to gain feedback, and that feedback will ultimately inform the neighborhood resilience toolkit, which council learned about in that April workshop.

Next, we'll talk about extended producer responsibility.

It's commonly referred to as EPR, so you'll be hearing me frequently throughout the remainder of the presentation saying EPR.

So I will be providing an overview of Colorado's EPR program, what EPR means for Lafayette, what current city activities have been completed, and what are the next steps.

So EPR is a policy approach that shifts the cost of recycling of packaging and paper products to manufacturers.

The goal is to improve recycling access and recycling systems, increase recycling rates, reduce contamination, create a sustainable funding model, and support a circular economy.

There are several key players in EPR.

The first is the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

They are the regulatory oversight.

Next, we'll have a circular action alliance.

This is the organization that administers the program.

They collect the producer fees and also reimburse local governments.

Next, we have producers or manufacturers.

They are the ones who pay the fees based on the packaging materials that they put into the marketplace.

And then local governments and haulers have the opportunity to be eligible for reimbursement.

So the timeline for EPR in 2022, the state adopted the legislation.

Since 2022, there has been a lot of planning, development, community engagement.

Lafayette was at several meetings providing feedback to CAA, the Circular Action Alliance.

Flash forward to where we are today in 2026.

Those reimbursement opportunities can begin for both the residential and multifamily sector.

And the statewide outreach and education efforts will also begin this year.

Looking ahead in 2028, that is when reimbursement opportunities are set to begin for the commercial sector.

This is tentative as we know, timelines may change.

The city has contracted with Republic Services for Waste Collection since 2013.

Our existing contract lasts until December 31st of 2029.

It also has the option of three one-year contract extensions.

There will be contract amendments to accommodate EPR.

What EPR means for Lafayette, I view this as supporting the triple bottom line.

So we have environmental benefits.

It supports our local climate action goals, but also supports regional and statewide goals.

There are financial benefits in maintaining affordable recycling costs and also new funding opportunities for outreach and education.

And then lastly, we have community benefits.

So we're enhancing recycling education and also improving trust within our community that recycling is actually getting recycled.

Current city activities, we did submit two applications for reimbursement.

The first is for collection services, and the second is for outreach and education.

Currently, we are evaluating opportunities for reimbursement.

We're also coordinating with Circular Action Alliance and collaborating with Republic Services.

Our legal team is also reviewing reimbursement agreements.

There are several funding opportunities that cities are reviewing.

For example, supplementing the solid waste administrative fee.

Our fee here in Lafayette is currently underperforming, so there's an opportunity to augment that fee to cover existing expenses.

Another opportunity is getting electric vehicles for the entire collection fleet for all streams.

So that is garbage, recycling, and compost.

That would be seven trucks for Lafayette.

There's also another opportunity to get EVs just for recycling and compost routes, which would be five trucks.

Those cities that have already have electric vehicles implemented are looking at getting another additional staffer to help maintain the program and enhance outreach and education.

They're also looking at reimbursement to residents as well.

So next steps later this summer, those reimbursement agreements will come back to council for consideration.

There will also be council discussion on funding opportunities.

As I mentioned earlier, there will need to be some amendments to that republic services contract to accommodate for EPR.

And then the city will also support statewide outreach campaign.

I did see two billboards on main highways already.

This is a picture of some of the TV ads that they're planning to run.

And with that, I'd like to open it up for questions.

Thank you so much, Councillor Jensen.

So I'm aware of EPR, but I'm not aware of the specifics.

So, like what products are we talking about?

How much money are we talking about?

Is are there, for example?

I know there are certain products that are more easy to recycle and do something with, and other products that aren't.

Is there a like a different scale for the producer depending on if it's something easily recycled?

There's a lot of details here that I don't know about and I would love to know about.

And maybe I should just call you and not take up all of council's time because I don't really understand how this works.

Yeah, so this is we're the third state to implement an EPR law.

California and Oregon were the first states in the country to implement a similar program, but it's really referring to packaging and paper.

So packaging can be plastic, it can be cardboard.

But those are the manufacturers that would pay specific fees to the Circular Action Alliance that then would be distributed out to municipalities and haulers.

Glass is not included.

It is.

So all of packaging, think about every single piece of recycling.

If you produce it as a manufacturer, technically you would need to pay a fee in order to support the end of life and the processing of that product.

So when I go buy olive oil, I try to buy olive oil and glass because I know it's more recyclable than plastic.

Is there something in this that would create a fee structure that would encourage manufacturers to put their olive oil in glass?

Or do is they just they're gonna keep doing, I mean, I think there's maybe one or two olive oils that come in guts, right?

And everything else is plastic.

So how does that get to the sort of initial production of the packaging and trying to encourage more recyclable options?

So the fee that's imposed to manufacturers, the hope is that fee will really uh cause the manufacturer to think differently about the packaging material so that they don't have to pay such a hefty fee.

So they pay more for plastic than they do for guts.

The the fee is pretty standard across all manufacturers, but the the hope of the fees to cause manufacturers to think differently about how they're packaging their material.

The goal of EPR is not necessarily to penalize manufacturers, it's to allow the recycling system to be improved and recycling education to be improved rather than that and our manufacturing change, let's say.

Okay.

Right, that that's helpful.

And then with regard to um money.

Um do you have a ballpark of what Lafayette might stand to gain from this project?

It depends.

So we're working closely with Republic services, given that our rates are embedded, we're looking for a cost per household to determine what that reimbursement will be.

So we're still working through exactly what that fee will be.

And approximately it it has I've heard different numbers, so we still don't know approximately because there's such a large range.

Okay.

All right.

I I think that's all I have for firm now.

Great questions.

Other questions from council.

Councilor Janola.

Thank you so much.

Really great work that that the department is doing.

Kudos all around.

Um just wanted to touch on a couple things that you brought up.

Um one was the bike infrastructure.

Thanks for for flagging that.

Can you talk a little bit more about the bike corral?

I noticed that the bike parking that was in front of Ghost Box vaporized, and there's now a hole where there was once bike parking and there isn't.

Yep, so that is where the bike corral is intended to go.

Um it will be a secured bike corral.

It does have some um graphics that are communications department created that um support and encourage sustainable transportation, but it will have um a few different bike racks within that corral to accommodate several bikes.

And what is the timeline?

Is there a timeline for rolling that up?

Um so they're manufacturing it right now.

So we're hoping in the next few months.

Okay.

And the the bike parking, the bike tracks that were there got moved, Owen.

Is that right?

They will move to the um tentatively to the Chase parking lot.

Yeah, I think they're already there in the kudos to economic development um and our public works team because they have spearheaded the movement and shuffling of bike parkings.

Yeah.

Um coming back to EPR, is there a change that will happen that the public will notice, like as far as curbside, things like that?

So there are different options for outreach and education.

We're hoping to create a cart a new cart tag that will prioritize pictures rather than words.

If you look at your lid right now, you might see a bunch of different words in terms of what can actually go into the bin.

Uh pictures are much more effective.

Um, so we are planning on working with Republic services to develop that using some of the outreach and education funds.

Um, we're working with the county to uh create a postcard that would be sent annually.

I don't know what the contents of that postcard will be.

Um, but we'll also leverage some of the statewide education that um circular action alliance will be creating.

So a lot more to come.

Thank you.

Just a quick circular action alliance is a nonprofit a form of government.

What actually is that group?

It's an organization, so um, I believe it's a nonprofit.

Um it's a nonprofit, but they also uh spearheaded the California Washington uh programs.

Um there are Maine and Oregon are also joining in with EPR, so there's this a growing um statewide.

Yep.

And they help okay, that's helpful.

Thank you.

Council Friends, their board is made mostly made up of packaging producers.

So they are trying to bring a solution to the table, which is much appreciated.

Um first thing, I mean, always great uh information.

Thank you.

Your team, you and your team, uh you and Lisa are doing so much work, um, it's really impressive.

So I just want to say um it's overwhelming to me hearing it and seeing it on the page.

And so um, I just appreciate all the hard work.

Um EV trucks.

Yeah, I think every time, right?

I'm like, when are we getting EV trucks?

I got a chance to see uh it up close in person at the Recycle Colorado Summit uh a couple weeks ago.

Um I think that was a front-end loader truck, but anyway, so it wouldn't be for us.

But um help help me understand, you know.

I mean, like I'm I'm looking at Lewisville and Superior has them, I think, and Commerce City.

Yep.

And I'm like, if we're getting beat by Commerce City and something sustainability, like we're in a bad place, right?

Like we gotta hustle.

And I guess what I'm starting to wonder is like when is our can you remind me when is our republic contract up for it?

We have one year renewals possible possible if we'd like.

Um is that has that already started?

We've already started doing one-year renewals or no.

So the contract is until December 31st of 2029.

Got it.

So but with the contract amendment that we'll have to do this year, and if council does want to use some of that reimbursement towards EV trucks, that is a possibility.

Yeah.

We're still working with Republic services on that cost for household.

The nice thing is it wouldn't increase the cost to the resident.

The reimbursement from CAA would be sent to Republic through the city.

Which could also be given back to the residents.

So it's you know it's not a loss, but it's potentially a loss.

I'm certain, I mean, I think you know how I feel about it.

I want them.

Um I think you know it's hard to build infrastructure to charge them, and so um I just think you know, it's like if we have a chance to get them, we may not have another chance for like a couple years as they build additional you know, substations to deliver immense capacity to wherever they charge them.

Um so you know, I uh anyway, I just think there's it's like not a it's not an option, I think that's always gonna be available to us whenever we want it, but it feels like it might be right now.

Like we can do it if we are able to figure out the money.

So I appreciate you figuring out the money.

Yeah.

More information to come in late summer.

Um provide benefits of EVs, the costs, and more of that nitty-gritty detail.

Yeah, yeah, thank you.

Um I'm curious about the waste characterization study that you have planned.

I was trying to think back and realized I did a waste characterization for the city of Lafayette when I was working at Ecocycle back in 2013, which was when we did the uh first year of the hauling contract, it sounds like with the Republic.

So that's probably why we did it.

Um anyway, so I'm excited that we're doing another one.

I'm curious, like, what are we looking?

Do we have that scoped out yet?

Is it just like uh we need to do it?

It's on the list, we're gonna figure it out.

Where are we?

So the county is doing a countywide assessment, but Lafayette wanted to get more data and look through more waste from both the residential, commercial, and apartments to see what common contamination items there are, what trends there are, to target more of that education for our community.

We just got results today, which is exciting.

I haven't looked, I haven't opened the document.

Amazing.

But the study is completed.

Okay.

So we'll be able to utilize that and strategically um apply education to our community.

That's great.

Because I think with EPR, we're gonna get education and outreach money too.

And so having data that informs our education outreach is really valuable.

Yeah.

That's cool.

I agree.

Yeah, that's really cool.

Um I have a couple of questions too that are more like higher level.

And because one of the, and so I'm sort of looking at council a little bit here too, because I think maybe I was maybe misunderstanding, but our next steps around our council priorities were you know, each of those topics that we sort of the buckets, we're gonna have a chance maybe to try to dive in.

And I don't know if this is the right time to talk about sustainability, but that indeed was one of our buckets.

Um so I don't necessarily want to I these are like kind of big questions.

So like I wrote them down and I do want to talk about them, but I also don't want to derail us for that conversation because it's much different than an update from uh Lizzie, which was fantastic and questions there.

So I'm gonna pause, and if we want to go down that rabbit hole, I'm ready.

Great.

Thank you.

Let's see if there's any other questions from council uh directly about the update.

Council Brother.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, thank you so much.

This this presentation has been so much fun.

Um questionslash comments.

So I know that the community resilience survey is gonna be launching in late June.

I'm wondering if y'all plan to engage with the Lafayette Youth Advisory Board that Council Gallegos is the liaison to, or the older adults uh advisory board, which I have the privilege uh of doing uh of liaising with.

I've really been struck by how broad and deep their insights uh are on on Lafayette and on different ways that folks engage.

And so I I learn things all the time from these respective groups, so just wondering if y'all have a plan to engage with them in the near term or in the midterm, or can bring uh later on the results of the survey to kind of uh right size that as you build uh the more resilient neighborhood uh toolkit.

Um so that's my first question.

Okay.

Um so yes, we are planning on sharing the survey with all boards and commissions.

Um we are strategically going to be visiting um the older adult center to um have a table and have these uh conversations to gain valuable information to inform the toolkit.

So we are working with graduate student advisors to do the boots on the ground, tabling.

So we are planning um several opportunities within our um city, but also with Sister Carmen, Josephine Commons, Meals on Wheels.

Um so we have a list of key partners that we'll communicate with and table at opportunities.

Outstanding.

My second question flows from a service called Ridwell, which for anyone who isn't familiar is the share pro temp.

It's a service that you pay a small amount of money for, and every couple weeks they come to your house and pick up batteries, electrical wires, uh plastic, film, multi-layer fossil, all kinds of those different difficult to uh recycle things.

But while I enjoy Ridwell, to me, it sort of seems like something for people who have some extra cash to burn, since you can just throw all this away.

And so as you think about both the EPR piece and other things, I'm wondering your thoughts in terms of how to, in the near mid-long term, broaden the availability of the kind of really cool events you talk about, where you know hard to recycle items to push that out to the community.

I don't know if my question makes sense.

I'm rambling.

Does that make sense?

Um from what I'm understanding, like when is it the right time to pursue opportunities to make it?

Yeah, because we don't want only folks who have some extra cash to throw at Ridwell to be able to do it.

Um so I want to broaden the aperture of who is available to take it, who's able to take advantage of these opportunities, which you clearly are already leading on.

So we have talked to Ridwell about some opportunities already.

Um they have tabled at Earth Day every day in the past.

Um they are growing immensely nationwide.

Um so we are gonna continue those conversations, but when we as a sustainability department create programs for the community, we really want to emphasize equity.

Um that is why programs like Growing Shade is really targeted at disproportionately impacted census blocks or the HEPA filter provides more um higher score for those that do have smaller children or health impacts.

So we are being very strategic in how we implement um community programs.

Thank you so much.

Great presentation.

We will continue to do that.

I really appreciate it.

Thank you, Mike.

Counselor Gianola.

I just have one more question about outreach.

And something that I think about a lot is where does our recycled material go?

What does it become?

And I wonder if there's plans in the outreach that's going to be developed out of this to get that information out to the public because right now I feel like most people, and even I feel I feel very savvy on this, and I have no idea where our recycled materials go, what they become, with the exception of glass, since we have momentum just right down the block.

Um, but you know, I think the public would really benefit from more transparent information because everybody says, or a lot of people that I that I talk to say, oh, it all doesn't get recycled anyway.

Why would I even bother sorting?

Um and I said, well, you know, in Boulder, we actually have what I understand is you know, good purchasers of recycled content material to go and do something else with it, but where it goes after that, I have no idea.

So I think this is something that I would love to have become part of that outreach.

Um, because I think the public, if they knew more about it, it could be more engaged and really try to do better, right?

If they knew uh where things go.

EPR will really help with that to build that trust within the community that recycling actually gets recycled.

Um our Boulder County Recycling Center does offer tours.

So highly recommend anyone who's interested in learning where recycling goes, can attend that tour and see the final product and then where though that final product gets uh bailed and shipped to.

Um we also have a what goes where guide, and if you search particular materials that are unique, such as glass, because it is a circular um cycle here in Colorado where it's just recycled down the street.

Um, some of that information is also online.

And Plastic Free July is coming up.

We usually host a workshop with EcoCycle where they will go in depth about where your recycling goes and that it is truly recycled.

Great.

Any other questions from Councilman Mayor Proteil?

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Um I'm gonna grill this for a second because I can't, there's so much here.

I was on the testimony for EPR, and it was an incredibly well supported um addition to Colorado.

And there's a couple of things I can tie together specifically for Councillor Gianola.

Green Guru is partnered with we've already mentioned Ridwell.

Um and Ridwell has made a connection.

I'm not saying Ridwell is for everybody, but if you can afford it, yeah, if you can't, we're still working on that.

But they literally made a connection with Green Guru.

So bicycle inner tubes are collected by Green Guru.

They pass them over the Goose Creek path in Boulder to a local place that sews them into goods.

And then they're sent back and sold through Green Guru.

So if you collect, if Rigwell collects these tubes, it literally goes into local people who have these small businesses to set those up.

So I think more of those would really help us understand what's moving forward.

And on the bicycle thread, our executive, no.

Development.

Director Keating.

Yes.

Economic development.

Thank you.

I got no words left.

Economic development director is amazing in the support, like the I and there is no such thing as vaporizing, that's not a thing.

It's conservation of mass.

But the bike rack did move over to the corner, and it was incredibly quick from the front of Ghost Box out to the corner.

And in our last meeting, we are DD of the DDA, we're talking about wayfinding.

And one of the things that I've been yammering on about for years now is the difference between bike lanes and bike routes and multi-use paths.

These are great as long as they go where they need to go.

And as the CC Sport CA retreat, we did talk about different equity issues.

And one of the distinguishing features is that in Lafayette versus Boulder, which is like has these incredibly well designed bike paths that go all in and out and through.

But they are used.

And to take advantage of those is an equity piece because they already exist.

If we acknowledge that these bits and pieces are there, I think we can tie that into alternate moving into more, having people on our alternative vehicles.

If we recognize that there are ways that people can move without having to be on a you know 10-foot wide cement bike path.

And we give out HAPA filters for what's, you know, I'm I'm thinking that if we provide those to the people who absolutely need them, not only is it going to remove those VOCs, uh neutralized ozone, but even the particulates that are in the atmosphere.

This this is what resilience looks like you're building support for the communities, where they are and uh you know what they do.

And I it reminds me of during COVID when we had the ARPA funds, we got 10,000 into the hands of Sister Carmen to get to people.

And they did like that.

So there's things we can do that I I think we have been doing, and I'm really impressed with being able to do that as we move forward.

Um one last thing I'm gonna do in uh counselor commons, not right now, but um there are some significant things that we are doing that has reached the statewide level at uh Colored Communities for Climate Action.

There are 49 municipalities there, and Lafayette bubbles to the surface as one of the municipalities to um look toward for um ways to do groundbreaking um activities that support not just sustainability uh but resilience, which is this little hard to define creature that is becoming more and more apparent.

And I just want to say thank you for all the work that the sustainability department is doing, and I think it's all coming together and did some pieces uh that we're doing a great job.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions or comments from council?

With uh I won't let you go quite yet.

Uh I want to circle back to Council Fridland.

I know there was uh something there, and maybe you said it was a little out of scope or maybe a little too high level or thinking about the future.

Could you frame that for us again?

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

Um I mean, you know, as I was kind of reviewing, right?

I was thinking about like, you know, um we have a waste aversion goal, I think that we're still tracking towards, for example, right?

And like how are we doing on that?

Um, do we need to revisit that and adjust it because of how you know, I don't think we're meeting it.

I don't know.

Um maybe we are.

Um that, for example, our climate goals, right?

Like, how are we doing in terms of greenhouse gas reduction?

How are we doing?

I know we do the report every year, and so I guess you know, there's a few things there, and I guess my thinking is how do we provide support and direction for not the next two years that I think you have well thought out, at least and probably longer, but like the next three, four, or five years, right?

Like, how do we put the seeds in place for sustainability looking you know, five years down the road for the next council so that they have great updates then as well, right?

So that's more what I'm thinking is like how do what is our long-term priorities and strategy that we want to support and help mold, if any, um, in this regard and also other regards too, I think generally of like how do we circle back on these priorities, sustainability being a good example of the one that's in front of us now and saying, okay, we talked about it as a priority.

Um there's probably a lot that the seven of us have to say about this.

Um when is the right venue time for that?

Does that does that help clarify?

It does help clarify.

Um in the interest of getting to everything that we have on the agenda tonight, I guess tonight would not be the right venue.

However, I think it's an important topic.

It's certainly something that we all want to talk about.

So what I would suggest is maybe sounds like something I should come back in a workshop type of setting.

Uh and if council feels okay with it, I think that's something we should just prioritize for that year.

Can I add a specific that I'd be interested in learning more about?

Um we are going to make a development, or not we're making it approve a development, there seems to be a lot of um thought that density is bad for the environment.

And I know that the governor's energy art's now called the Colorado Energy Office has done a lot of work on how we develop and how it relates to greenhouse gases, VMT, things like that.

And I think the public has a lot of misconceptions about what is good for the environment and what isn't.

And um, I would love to know specifically, are you working on any of that as part of the sustainability team?

And is there you know something we could share with the public so that you know there are some people who think single-family large lot residential is greener than you know, apartments or whatever.

Um so it'd be it'd be nice to have that incorporated in a way that the public can see when they are coming to us and saying we don't like this development, or we do uh that the energy and VMT component could be somehow, I don't know if we have a scale or criteria or something that ranks it and says on a on a project approval basis, this project is greener than this one.

You know, uh it'd be really nice to be able to have that kind of information for both us and the public.

I'd like to jump in here and just say, you know, kind of to your point, Councilor Jensen, and to your point, Councilor Friedland.

One of the things that I struggle with is how do we get the staff and the different departments to better engage with our city plans?

You know, we have this amazing climate action plan, but I don't always hear uh about how it drives decision making in the different city departments, and I think that's that's where I see kind of the long-term goal is if we can start to get those seeds planted to really where every not every decision, but many decisions that are being made at the staff level are sort of already kind of working towards that, and then if council's kind of continuing to harp on that.

So tell me about how this intersects with the sustainability plan when we get a you know something from public works or from planning.

Um, then we're sort of on that path and we're directing there.

So that's something that I would love to try to explore more in a workshop.

I think that's a great great place to do it.

But I think this is you know, to your point, Counselor Jensen.

There are there are specific answers to specific questions that if they were thinking about it more, we would they would just present those to us, right?

And related to that, when I was on planning commission, you know, I would always ask how close is this to a bus stop and how do you get to the bus stop?

But that was not one of the criteria necessarily that planning commission was supposed to be looking at.

Right.

It wasn't part of the code, but and I I would encourage them to make access to a bus stop for people, but I and they could ignore it, you know, and do whatever they wanted to.

And so things like that, you know, like is alternative transportation modes available at this site.

Uh those are the kind of things I'm looking to incorporate.

But but I think your broader point about how we integrate all of our different plans into everything we do.

I again I think that would be a good workshop topic.

I appreciate your adding that because it does feel like we're siloed.

We do these great plans, but we don't always integrate them with each other.

Great.

I appreciate the conversation.

I appreciate the discussion.

I think it's a great uh conversation for a workshop in the future.

Uh thank you so much.

Great.

We will move on to our final of the three presentations for tonight's and I believe it is our deputy city attorney who will be leading.

Uh it's the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport, the RMMA legal updates.

Uh I know a lot of counselors are excited for this one.

All right, good evening, Mayor and members of city council.

I'm Aaron Poe, the deputy city attorney, and I'm here tonight with legal updates about the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport, also known as RMA.

Uh the objective tonight is to update City Council on airport legal matters.

Um it is an informational item, no vote is required.

Uh, for an agenda, we have two issues.

The first is Lafayette's petition for court review of an FAA flight path change that was issued in a document titled Letter to Airmen.

Uh the second is a court case, the town of Superior in Boulder County versus Jefferson County, which is the operator of the airport.

Okay.

And so the letter to Airmen, this was issued November 10th, 2025 by the FAA, and it made changes to departure and arrival routes, including increasing traffic over the highway 287 corridor.

Uh the city did try to address these changes in a collaborative manner.

Mayor Tapia Vega sent a letter on behalf of the city in December 2025, notifying the FAA of the increased impact on Lafayette residents.

The FAA responded that since the changes in flight path, there had been a decrease in potential safety incidents at the airport.

And based on the priority of safety first, they declined to change the routes.

So the city hired special counsel Stephen Tabor, who specializes in aviation law to ask for court review of the FAA process followed to change the flight path.

Mr.

Tabor filed a petition for review with the Court of Appeals for the DC circuit, challenging the process followed by the FAA to make flight path changes, in particular questioning uh how environmental review occurred.

Although Lafayette was interested in mediation, the case was not ultimately selected for mediation.

One reason for this could be that the FAA declined to participate, which means the next step would be submitting briefs if the city continues forward with the petition.

An executive session will be scheduled with Mr.

Tabor about the cost and potential outcomes if litigation continues.

The timeline for briefs moving forward is that the city's brief is due July 17th.

The FAA can respond by August 17th.

The city can then submit a reply brief by September 17th, with all briefs being submitted by September 29th.

However, it's not uncommon for these dates to change because a party will ask for an extension, but hopefully the matter would be fully briefed and before the court sometime this fall.

And the potential outcomes we might see range from reopening of the flight path procedures to no action or resolution.

And the estimated cost range from Mr.

Tabor is between 120 and 170,000.

All right, moving to the second matter.

This is a litigation case.

It's the town of Superior in Boulder County versus Jefferson County.

And as background, in March of 2024, the town of Superior in Boulder County file for injunctive relief regarding the touch and go aircraft operations at RMMA because of excessive noise and lead emissions leading to local nuisances.

In March 2025, the trial court dismissed the case, saying the matter was preempted by federal law, leaving no room for local regulation of these nuisances.

In May 2026, the dismissal about noise was upheld by the Colorado Court of Appeals.

However, the lead issue has been remanded to the trial court for more proceedings to determine preemption on that issue.

And where we are right now is that Superior and Boulder County have filed a petition for review by the Colorado Supreme Court.

And Lafayette and Lewisville are joining with Broomfield in a brief to support the grant of review by the state Supreme Court.

This brief is due June 18th, and the hope is that these briefs will encourage the court to resolve what role state courts have to enjoy nuisances created by airports.

This is also not a fast process.

And if review is granted, it could be a year before the court issues an opinion.

And that concludes the presentation, and I'm happy to answer questions.

Questions from counsel, counselor Justin.

So the superior case doesn't really resolve our specific airport problem.

It just answers the question of whether there's a role for state courts in dealing with nuisances caused by airports, right?

So then if they decide there is a role, then there would be what?

Well, what Superior and Boulder County asked for was the court to stop the touch and go operations or significantly limit it to have some sort of control to not have as much of a nuisance on noise and lead.

So I guess the first hurdle there is whether or not the court believes that it has that power since there are federal, a lot of federal law in the aircraft arena.

Is there a space for local nuisances to be policed?

And can a court force the airport to do it?

The airports acknowledge that it could on its own make some changes to touch and go operations.

But the question now is can the court force the airport to do that?

Which would have some result on us.

That would that would certainly not have as much aircraft over Lafayette if those touch and goes were decreased or eliminated.

But if the decision they're making is can the court force, not will the court force.

Those are two different questions.

And one seems to me it would require some further litigation in the future.

Then if the court should rule that yes, they can, then the question is what should they order and what court process and what level of court, you know, uh is it the Colorado Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, the Court of Original Jurisdiction.

Where does all this happen next if we get a ruling that there is a role for local courts in dealing with this nuisance?

What I believe would happen was it would go back to the trial court to look at the merits of the injunctive relief that was being requested, and then the court would decide what if any injunction would be appropriate.

So first they have to find that they have the authority to do it, and then the second part would be how do they exercise that authority.

Okay.

So we will know relatively quickly if there is authority, what a year they um ish.

It well, I guess it depends on what you considered quickly.

Um yes, it could it could be up to a year, maybe more.

And the court has to, the Colorado State um Supreme Court has to agree to hear the case.

They could just say no, and then we're we're left where we are.

Okay.

And superiors asking for money from us to do this, so they're paying for all this.

And we're just and we are don't have to do anything to make that happen.

That's correct.

But on the case of the other case, we are paying for it.

Correct.

And our ask is precisely you know, it's I think it how I would describe it, and Stephen Tabor could probably do it much, could do it much more eloquently, is that we're calling them out on the process that they used.

So, in his opinion, it looks like they jump to the solution that they wanted and then use process to explain why it works instead of going through a robust environmental and other processes to see what are the impacts and then making a decision.

So one possibility could be that the court says yes, they they missed some hoops, and FAA, you have to go back and go through all those hoops, but at the end of those hoops, they could end up where they are right now.

And and as I'm thinking about the dollar signs here and the money we might need to make people whole at the cemetery and the likelihood of winning on this.

I I guess we need to have an executive session to talk about that as to whether or not the dollars we're spending have a great opportunity of success at this point.

Correct.

And at the executive session, you would hear from Mr.

Tabor and get more information from him, and then ultimately come back into a public uh space to have that discussion and make that decision.

But he'll be able to give much more detail than what I think.

Counselor Bullion.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, thank you so much for this presentation.

Obviously, this is a very thorny issue.

Uh I really take Councillor Jensen's points on the budget challenge.

I I guess from my perspective, given the interest in our community on this specific issue set and challenge, which Mayor Protenum went to Washington specifically to have a number of meetings on.

I guess for me, it would have to be very the the cons would really have to outweigh the pros considering the interest uh in our community on this issue.

Um that's point one.

And then point two I guess I'm kind of struggling to understand where this ends and whether this is simply a matter of do we wait a couple years until potentially a new federal administration that just says, okay, nah, because the FAA doesn't seem to be playing ball with us.

And so, and maybe this is a question for executive session, but maybe it's sort of just like an open question.

What do we have to lose other than some dollars to continue to pursue this to logical ends?

That's a great question, and I don't know that I'm the best one to answer it, but since I'm standing here, uh I'll try.

I don't know that that really could end up any worse than where we're at now, except financially.

You pay the money, end up where you are, uh maybe things improve, maybe maybe they don't.

But again, I think um Stephen Tabor would have a much more informed answer for it.

Oh, thank you so much.

And I think that that really kind of corroborates how I'm thinking through this, because again, like in what we demonstrate to our community with the the severity with which we're trying to tackle this.

I mean, I think we probably get written or verbal public input on this issue on a daily basis.

And so telling the story to the community in terms of the fight we're waging to address it, I think is really important.

Thank you.

Counselor Janella.

Yeah, I'll echo that.

I mean, I think the sheer number of public comments that we receive on this topic is greater than almost any single individual issue.

Granted, uh, we hear from a lot uh a small subset of people a lot, but I think we hear from a broad subset of people on this particular issue.

And so, you know, I I think there's there are limited things that we can do, and I think the community is telling us, well, what you can do, you should try.

Um, and I'm sort of of that mind as someone who's I feel impacted by this issue on a daily basis.

Coming back to the question that I think I I about the boulder um superior lawsuit, I think they ask here is just we're joining in that brief or that that support of their petition to the Colorado Supreme Court to say we we think that the court should take this up.

So it's really uh a written document being submitted to the court there.

And and as I understand at the outcome, if the court were to say, yes, Boulder and Superior, you have the ability to regulate nuisance of airports, then they would try to do it, right?

They've already tried to do it.

They tried to implement some kind of nuisance relief, and they got sued over it.

And so it's not the court who's implementing any of it, it's the municipalities themselves are trying to directly go and enforce that you know get relief against that nuisance.

So just wanted to clarify that for for counselor Jensen as I understand it.

Um I'm I'm glad that we're taking these two topics up, and I wonder if there's room for other avenues to look for relief for our citizens elsewhere beyond just these kind of two avenues.

I want to continue to develop, you know, all of the uh various arrows in our quiver, as it were, um, because I don't think we've exhausted that at this time.

Thank you.

Council Friendly?

Yeah, thank you.

Thanks for the updates.

Um definitely the price tag was uh interesting to see.

Um I'm curious how much we've spent so far, if we're allowed to say that.

I don't know.

Yeah, quite about 25,000.

Okay.

Out of that and potentially 160.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um yeah, I'll just echo, you know, to say that um in my time on the council and before, you know, I think we've we've really had two in my mind, like actual activities that we were able to do something it felt like.

Uh one was the community was round table, which was not effective.

Um, and then this.

And so to me, you know, uh I have fears that we will fail at this, even if we're successful, the FAA may come back and say, yeah, we're gonna do a whole review, and still um, you know, not uh not make any changes, but we did the review and so deal with it, right?

So even that could be an outcome, right?

But to me, you know, we we need to do we need to work on this because it creates pressure, I think.

Um, and so um I just appreciate the update, and I'm certainly still supportive.

Um I would also add too, I think to Councillor Gianola's kind of points.

Um I think there's other things that we need to talk about and consider on this.

And so I would I'm thinking back, and I don't think we've had like a public conversation about all of the things, the underlying issues.

I think it's been a while.

I remember doing one, I think Megan, you did one for us um uh a while ago, and but that was certainly not this council, um, and I think it was early on in the last council too.

So I think there's an opportunity for us to obviously deal with our legal things, um, but also kind of have a community conversation where we you know people know that we're having it, that it's gonna be a variety of topics around this issue, and we can come hear how it impacts them, which I know we hear, but like I think it's important to give them a forum to tell us how this is impacting them and provide ideas for solutions that we can then have a conversation here about other things, legal being one avenue, but certainly also you know, um other changes maybe that they could make to the the altitude of the flight patterns coming in or something, which I think they have um done um a little bit, and so it seems like like that's an avenue that we could explore, right?

Or um you know, uh working directly with with other folks.

So I think there's a lot of things there, and I know that this was just a legal update, but I would say that similar to our last conversation, we need to have another conversation.

Um and we need to uh make it be broad, and obviously don't let it impact our legal um opportunities here, which I actually think to me it's like look at superior, right?

Like they're going after that, that's expensive, and probably gonna fail, let's be honest, at the Supreme Court level, um the Colorado Supreme Court level.

Ours feels like it has some legs.

So, you know, looking around at the communities that are impacted by RMMA, that's more than most can say right now.

Um so you know, to me, it's like, ooh, okay, well, we we would we would be doing not just our community disservice, but the other communities that are impacted at disservice if we didn't continue to pursue this route, in my opinion.

So thank you for the time.

Thank you, counselor.

Mayor Putin?

Uh, thank you, Mayor.

Since I had an opportunity to meet with the FAA that comment on what we discovered to all councils since we haven't had that opportunity, and the national airspace is managed by the FAA.

That's our job is to make it safe.

And I do think we should continue to look for opportunities to collaborate with our closest um municipalities, including uh Broomfield County and Jefferson County.

And the reason for that is it's a big airspace.

We've got Denver International Airport, we've got all the airspace there in the air centennial, and there's a lot of planes in the air.

So for one municipality, us to win a decision that we get to decide what's a nuisance, is it's a hot it's a really high bar.

We'd have to prove to the FAA that we have a capacity to regulate that.

And there's a lot at stake.

Um these things are flight's not simple.

It's it's a big deal.

And we've got traffic from DIA coming over the top of everything that's on top of us.

And I I do think our case has legs and potential.

And I can tell you that the if we if you think we have issues, superior, their number one issue is the airport.

The mayor says that's that's what he deals with mostly.

And there's a good reason.

If you look at the traffic that comes out of there, comes off the airport, drop and lead and make a noise with old planes.

Uh it's never going to go away in Superior unless we have a dramatic change for not just us, but Lewisville, Superior, Boulder, maybe even some of the cities in uh Jefferson and Broomfield County.

So I I think we should continue to look at what I mean the money issues something I'm trying to deal with.

Because if I if I'm not mistaken, that would be that would put us at the most amount of money put it uh, you know, into this effort.

And if we were to win, there's another bar to jump through, another hoop.

And we were given some indications of what we could potentially do, but nothing's come to fruition yet.

Um we are, I think, in a position to be that we're responsible for helping residents of Lafayette understand what's going on and why there hasn't been a change.

And the safety um the the re the improvement in safety at both the Centennial Airport and Arm May are something that does well within the current political climate.

Like there's improvements in safety.

And unfortunately, that means running all that noise over us in a low way.

And they've even lowered the ceiling that planes have to stay out of to make space for DIAcraft coming through.

So they're all getting sandwiched into this one location.

And uh add on top of that area is now doing helicopter tours.

So throw a helicopter in here.

And they have different um restrictions on how low they can go.

So it's a it's a lot that's moving around in our airspace.

And the open conversations, I think, with all of our colleagues is gonna be important moving forward, so that we can come to a situation where we don't have the noise issues that are that we're experiencing right now.

And I'm not sure what that is yet, but I do know that we're we I feel like the best thing we can do is to continue to collaborate with all of our neighbors, uh, including the ones we haven't spoken to, maybe, uh, and find out if there's a better way to reduce the noise problem for all the residents.

And this is an incredibly densely populated area.

There are less densely populated areas in Colorado.

Um I'll just leave it at that.

There are other places that don't have as much air traffic uh and this many people living on the ground.

It really makes me nervous that there's so many aircra aircraft flying over such densely populated areas and continues to grow.

Again, telling that story about the complexity of this issue, who we're working with.

One just to kind of answer the mail, but also maybe to take some burden off of folks who have to routinely respond to a frequently repeated question.

Here it is.

Permit fees for work and public rights away.

We will walk through a little bit of background, tell you about the proposed changes, opportunity for questions, and we have a proposed motion.

So as is the case with most, if not all cities, the city permits and inspects work in public rights aways and public easements.

That's important to protect public health safety and welfare, to make sure there isn't damage to public and private property and infrastructure, and in the case of new development where public infrastructure is being constructed by private developers to make sure that that infrastructure meets the city standards.

So a little bit of history until COVID and the cyber tech, we had uh basically a paper-based permit system that got upgraded to email um during COVID, and uh several years ago our IT department was able to create kind of an interim system using our GIS tool.

So because of that, we've kept the fee structure fairly simple over time and just use a nominal flat fee and have an attempted to change that.

Um that approach doesn't consider the scope or duration of work.

So somebody who's doing a simple item at their house is earning the same fee as someone who might be doing a multi-year project that requires hundreds or thousands of inspections.

Doesn't really equitably distribute cost across those permittees, it doesn't recover the city's cost to do it, and it's actually not consistent with neighboring communities.

We looked around and everybody um has shifted away from that approach over time.

So um it is important and actually legally required that when we set fees that they're they're based on the proportion impact.

So we did a uh comprehensive analysis of that.

We looked at what resources go toward providing this service.

Um we narrowed down a subset of that, and so basically we've we came up with hourly rates for the key staff plus non-personnel expenses, so truck and computer and that we didn't fully load them with overhead, but basically came up with a what's our cost to provide the essence of the service.

We then looked at what are the tasks that are associated with that service, how long do they take, and translated that into fees per unit of work or unit of time.

Um we tested that on some sample projects just to make sure it seemed reasonable relative to the the likely cost of a project.

Um we then looked at some pure cities to make sure that we weren't out of a norm with our neighbors in the region, and finally we'd we turn that into the fee schedule and ordinance that we are presenting.

Um so basically what this will look like, and it's tied to we're implementing the new gov built permitting software this summer, so that's an opportunity to we're already gonna have to have change management with contractors to help them understand the new system, and so by tying it to that the additional information we'll need from them will coincide with the unveiling of of that new permitting system, and that'll also do us an ability of track.

So um under what's proposed we'll have a base fee of eighty-two dollars, and that will cover like some really small projects, but then things on top of that are tied to the scope and duration of the work.

And so have some examples here, but um, so for example, we would charge 55 cents per linear foot of water pipe, and that's based on our estimate of someone's putting in a hundred feet of water pipe, how many inspections are we like to need, how many hours is that, what's our cost per hour to do that?

And so that's extrapolated out.

Um whereas things like traffic control, where if somebody has a street closed for a year, we probably are checking on that at least once a day, sometimes more to make sure it's safe to make sure that things are in place.

And so those are things we would charge by the um by the week versus by the unit.

Um if council is supportive of approving this on first reading tonight, we would do a second reading on July 7th.

Um, and if it was approved, it goes into effect 10 days later on July 17th.

We would integrate it into the gov built permit software, and then um we review and update it annually through the budget process.

So as we have the system in place, we'll be able to track data on whether what we're charging is recovering our costs, whether some things are taking longer or or less time than we anticipated, and we'll be able to adjust that over time as our as our costs change and as we get more information.

So that is the um substance of the request, and I'm happy to answer any questions, and I have proposed motion language.

Thank you.

Questions from council council Janella?

Thank you.

Um can you help me understand who's paying these fees?

So it would generally it's the contractor.

So to do work in the right of way, you need to be a licensed contractor, a licensed contractor needs to pull the permit.

So that's then going to be passed along to their customer.

But it but again, the way it's structured, it's proportional.

So if you're paying someone to have a you know, a backhoe and a truck out for 10 hours, and we're charging you to inspect it for 15 minutes, it's relative to the cost of what you're paying the contractor.

It's deliberately set up to hopefully not be a significant impact on the world cost.

Who is a typical user that's going to have that work being done?

Um it runs the game.

So sometimes it's somebody who's a sewer service breaks and it happens to break under the road, and they need to hire someone to come out and dig that up and repair it.

Um we get you know fiber optic companies that come in and want to tear up the city for a couple of years, and we have to keep an eye on them on a daily basis.

Um, we have major subdivisions come in where a developer is you know building new streets and sewer and water that we need to um we need to inspect because we're gonna community is gonna own it and maintain it in perpetuity.

So it's kind of the a full range of things.

It's got any anyone and everyone, but I think these are great examples just to help me get a little better context for where are these fees who's paying the fees ultimately, even if it's the contractor who's responsible, it's the yeah, ultimately it's the customer and it's important to the overall cost of the project.

Okay, thank you so much.

Great other questions.

Counselor Jensen?

Thank you.

And thank you for the presentation.

Um we back up uh this new system given that we were hacked once before.

Um, will this be living somewhere on a server that uh if somebody hacked the whole city system?

Where how do we have made significant changes in a sense 2000?

Um yeah, I I don't know the specifics of this, but at this point, a lot of our software is actually hosted now.

It's it's web-based, and it's you know, and the the vendor has it mirrored in multiple places, and then the city also has fundamentally changed the way we keep and backup data.

So the IT director could could give you the excruciating details on it, but uh, we are in a very different position than we were in 2000.

Excuse me.

It's still doing, I apologize.

Um, we we discovered that we hadn't really been updating our water fees to keep pace with what we needed, and now we're seeing that these construction fees have not been updated.

Are there maybe you don't know about everything, but are there are other fees that haven't been updated in a while that we should be looking at?

Yes.

And so we are systematically working through this.

So uh another example that we'll likely be back with in the near future is like we don't charge for our the time and money we spend on engineering consultants or engineering staff to review development proposals.

Um there's some nominal fees associated with that.

Um in most places tend to have a slightly different cost recovery model because you sort of have a spectrum of public good to private good, and oftentimes those processes are somewhere in the middle because they include public input engagement, and to some degree the the time spent varies on the public process, and sometimes it's appropriate for the public to pay a different proportion of that.

But yeah, lots of things in the queue.

We've just been trying to work through systematically, and this is kind of opportunistic with the new software coming out, it gives us an ability to do that.

Um, as we move toward updating our utility building software will likely make some changes there as well.

The budget implications of this would be revenue positive, I'm I'm assuming.

And do you have any sense of how much revenue positivity would be?

Um ideally it's gonna cover the cost of the people associated with the program and kind of their key non-personnel expenses.

So it's probably in the hundred to two hundred thousand dollar range.

Um the nice thing about having it fee-based is these things fluctuate year to year.

So it it you know, if we see that every year we're getting this level of activity and we're having to hire consultants or contractors to sport and inspection, it potentially justifies moving staffing levels or at least pays for those things.

So you know, we we can't make money off it, but ideally it moves with the demand so that we're recovering our costs.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Do you mind putting the language on the screen?

Umless there are any questions.

We have a motion on the screen.

I move to approve on first reading ordinance number 13 series 2026, amending chapter four fees of the code of ordinance ordinances changing certain fees related to sidewalk and street improvements and setting forth related details.

Second.

We have a motion, we have a second.

Any discussion on this matter?

Hearing none.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed say no?

None opposed, that pass it unanimously.

Thank you, Keep.

Great.

That concludes our one regular business uh item tonight.

We'll move on to council appointments.

Uh we, of course, had a vacancy on our planning commission.

We opened that up to uh applicants.

And then we have three counselors be part of a committee for interviews.

I don't believe there would be a presentation for this one.

Um what I want to do, because those recommendations came before, so they are in our packet, is turn it over to the three counselors who were part of the interview committee and just kind of get their thoughts uh how the process worked for them and why they're putting their recommendation to council.

So if any of the three are brave enough to go first, please.

Um yeah, I think we had good interviews.

Um, we had four people for one spot, so it was uh competitive, um, which was good.

Um in the end, you know, I think I felt like we had one candidate who really demonstrated um you know significant maybe like attention to detail and decision making um you know throughout his career and also in the way that he answered the questions, and so his name was Joe.

Uh his last name, shown yeah, say it again.

Shunbeck.

Shonbeck.

Um and I thought I thought he did a good job.

Um he he had good answers, and again, you know, I think looking at his resume and hearing about his background um clearly can really dive deep into subjects and can kind of parse through and try to um you know uh uh communicate um really complex topics and understand complex topics and then get to um I think solid decision making based on those complexities.

So that was that was my uh my recommendation to council.

I had the same outcome of my thoughts during the interview process, and that I thought Joe was was the best candidate.

I'll I I'll preface by saying, you know, we got uh a selection of applicants that I think are different from our typical city council, uh I'm sorry, planning commission type of personnel in that I don't think anyone had like a planning background or architecture or building or really kind of that that typical or more typical, I don't won't say it's typical, but it's maybe more typical, um, that we often see appointed to planning commission.

Um so from the get-go, it was a little bit to me of I didn't know how the interviews were gonna go.

Uh two of the applicants were applicants previously, um, and so we kind of knew their their experience since they had applied for the planning commission before.

And I thought that was relevant for uh for the planning commission.

And so he's also my recommendation.

So I felt there was another candidate who scored higher, and I thought um was more familiar with the role, and he had a great understanding of revenue spar, PUD, the comp plan, the land use code, quasi judicial processes.

He's attended many planning commission meetings, um, whereas the other candidate had not attended one previously, but in the favor of democracy and two candidates or two people from the interview panel favoring this other candidate.

I am okay putting him through.

Fantastic.

Uh I appreciate first and foremost uh willing to do the work and the recommendation brought forth.

Uh is there any thoughts from the rest of the members of council?

And if not, I'm I'm I'll I'll look to the members of the committee if they want to put a motion on the floor.

Councilor Polier.

Uh just to reiterate, Mayor, your appreciation for the interviewing panel.

Uh there's a lot going on, particularly in the summer, and so carving out that time by the three panelists.

Um I'm very appreciative for and really just to echo the remarks on the strength of the four applicants.

I, for one, really hope that they continue the three folks other than Mr.

Sherbeck continue to stay involved in our community and hope to see them on another board of commission.

Thank you, Mayor.

Absolutely.

I know thank you.

Well, I will say a thank you for the the uh everyone who applied in the committee who did the interviews is just one more thing in the scheduled minute.

And I'm I'm really happy that we had four candidates.

Um that's four more people who are going to be close to the processes that go on and have an understanding of what happens in that uh I wasn't in the interviews, I take their subcommittees uh recommendation.

Fantastic.

Come in.

That's the same thing.

Thank you.

Thank you for doing the work.

Time for a motion.

Time for a motion.

I move to appoint Joe Schoenbeck to the planning commission for a term commencing immediately and ending November 30th, 2027.

Second.

We have a motion, we have a second.

Any discussion on this matter.

Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed say no.

None opposed.

Passes unanimously.

Fantastic.

Moving on to staff reports, and we'll begin tonight with our city attorney's report.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, no report tonight, but I did want to thank Deputy City Attorney Aaron Poe for a presentation on the airport update tonight.

That's all thank you.

Thank you.

Moving on to our city manager's report.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good evening, council.

Um, have a few things to update you on tonight.

So the city has officially kicked off meetings for both the recreation center and service center projects, our internal projects, now that we have our consultants on board.

So thank you for the approval of those contracts.

You will be receiving an update and an overview over at next week's workshop, but this is just a really exciting milestone to have all the consultant and design teams uh in place and work underway.

We are hosting the second in the new series of COP Talks.

This one will be focused on flock safety cameras tomorrow at 6 p.m.

Uh, as you recall, the first one was on e-bike safety and had a successful meeting there with about 20 residents and a couple of council members in attendance as well.

Um we are looking and seeking feedback soon on the North Um future of the 200 North Public Road.

And so if you can follow that link or sign up to the project page on Lafayette Listens, you'll be notified when the engagement survey becomes available.

What building is that?

That is here at Chase Bank Building.

Oh, okay.

And then the annual mental health and human services grant program, which counselor Jensen is a liaison to on the uh advisory board.

The applications open on Monday, June 29th, and so all previous applicants and interested party parties will be notified, and then we'll also post a news flash on social media.

But if you have any nonprofits that you know would fit the criteria, please uh encourage them to sign up as well.

And then just a reminder for Juneteenth this Friday, we have several facility closures.

So I'll just note the facilities that will be open, which will be the Indian Peaks Golf Course, the Great Outdoors Water Park, and the Bob Berger Recreation Center.

So hope to uh enjoy some of the celebrations that are going around that day.

And that's on the website, right?

All the details of that.

That's correct, yeah.

And then at your June 23rd workshop, we're uh kicking off in the budget process, so a financial update, and then I had the pleasure of meeting with uh Councillor Bolier and Councillor Fridlin yesterday to talk about kind of we're calling council meeting norms to have a better topic, but just to kind of start to discuss around um while we're getting out a reasonable time, hopefully tonight, uh the continuation of having this at an earlier time.

So they'll be uh leading that with assistance from staff as needed.

And then on your July 7th meeting, a big meeting there with your public hearing for your land use code um adoption, a public hearing on the building code adoption that was on first reading um tonight because by state law needs to be a public hearing on second reading, so that will be then as well, and then uh appointments to your downtown development authority.

That's what I have, thank you.

Thank you.

Moving on to council reports, uh we'll be in Councilor Friendland.

Yeah, don't have much.

Um had a consortium meeting last week.

I was able to attend at least the first half of it, but then had to get over to that exciting cemetery meeting after.

Um talked about a few uh I thought interesting things around um you know a lot of the work that the county's doing around transportation with with the funding that they have, um, and obviously a lot of work with all communities, but certainly our community um and you know, one of the big projects right over here, 120th, right?

That big um project that they've been working on.

So um, and also South Boulder Road, um, connectivity ideas too.

So there's a lot going on there, um, and certainly um it was an interesting conversation.

It it reminded me of one of the conversations that we've had before around you know, lots going on in many things, but certainly transportation, where we walk into a meeting and we don't have all of the detail from his you know historical detail.

So I'll just add a plus one to that point of how do we do that successfully so that we're prepared to walk into these meetings and you know at least know where to point to say, hey, let's talk about you know highway seven, right?

Who do we who do we tap um that knows Highway 7 really well and our staff or something?

Um so just thought that was interesting, and then talked a little bit about um the Boulder County area agency on aging.

Sounds like they're doing a lot, and they're doing a lot in Lafayette, which is great, and so it's great that we're taking advantage of that uh resource.

Um, and I'm I'm sure um a good group of folks that helps our older Americans uh in Lafayette here as well.

So that's all for me.

Great, thank you.

Counselor Jensen.

Well, as an older American, I appreciate that.

Um I want to bring to the public's attention, you know, that in 2025, the citizens of Boulder County voted to tax themselves for mental health services on Thursday.

The commission is looking at a plan for what to do with that money.

And it will include about five million dollars in RFP options where community-based organizations can say we have a solution to a problem, and um here's what we'd like you to find.

And there's some parameters around that, but it sort of fits similar to some of the mental health and human services things we are already doing on a smaller scale, but with a lot more money.

It's actually a total of 14 million dollars, but five million will be just for this RFP process.

So, to all the thousands of community groups who are listening right now, know that there's this pot of money, and that uh they uh it'll be available for us, I think probably in September or October by the time they release the funds.

Um at uh Art Night Out, a gentleman came to the booth who says he had complained several times about a particular traffic issue, and nobody has ever gotten back to it.

And it made me realize that I don't really know what to say to people who have a particular traffic issue about is there a form online that they should fill out or so I could use some information about how to respond to people who have that kind of a specific issue because I didn't know what to say to them.

And then lastly, uh the RTD is looking at uh closing one RTD route that impacts Lafayette, uh the 228, which goes down South Boulder Road and then north up 95th.

So it's got stops by baseline and in the forest park area.

I would like to suggest that we write a letter to RTD.

Because it could be they can reconfigure some existing routes for the part that goes through Lafayette, or they could do something.

But I know from my friends who take transit, this is going to be a real, like it intersects with the jump for people who are going down Arapaho, and it creates options for people that they will not have where they will not be able to access the jump anymore because these other lines don't get there.

So I would like to suggest, and I'd be happy to work with staff that we write a letter of concern.

I I don't know if we actually I know they're in a budget crunch and they are looking at the you know that least active routes to try to cut.

It takes it is the only route that services superior.

So not that that's our problem, but superior.

We probably have people here who work in superior who are currently taking the bus who will not have the ability to get there anymore.

It goes through Lewisville and then over to Superior and then in Northern Lafayette.

So I would like to ask if it's possible that we write a letter to RTD in support of keeping that service.

I I don't think we can speak for the superior community about their part of it, but I think we could speak about our part of it and ask that that service be maintained.

And I don't know if there's a mechanism or path to what do we how do we approach that?

Uh I'd love to just get a consensus from staff.

The second part is I'm I think I'd love for you to work with staff on this, maybe bring this back.

Do you know what the timeline is for this?

September will be completely gone.

But do you know what the timeline is for us to potentially?

You know what?

I do not know that.

I pulled it up, was sitting here, and let me just see.

Um I have the route information, but I let's see.

Let's um Councillor Jensen, while you look that up, do you mind if I provide a little context?

Because staff is aware of this as well.

And we're working with community solutions and sent a letter to them about the impacts on Lafayette as well.

So not necessarily as impactful as coming from council per se, but we have been also engaged in this issue and advocating for the continuation of this route.

So happy to also write one that has your signatures at the bottom.

Yeah.

Is there anyone from council who would oppose this?

Doesn't look like it.

So if staff can go ahead and work and work with counselor Jensen on this, that would be fantastic.

Sure.

That's all I have.

Nice.

Thank you.

Uh Councillor Gianola.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, like Councillor Jensen's uh discussion on the mental health tax.

I'll share that you know several years ago, Boulder County residents voted themselves to extend the sustainability tax.

And one of the things that the sustainability tax is funding this year, like last year, is the climate equity fund.

Um so that grant award goes to community-based organizations who are trying to, you know, achieve some sort of climate justice.

Um this opens up on July 1st.

There'll be up to $2 million in grants that are available.

Um it really is a uh a successful um grant program last year.

I believe Sister Carmen was one of the applicants who got a pretty large award, I think $150,000 to partner with a local farm to get local food for uh their their um community.

I think the Boulder Ridge Mobile Home Park also got some funds.

Uh I can't remember what for, but those are the kinds of groups that in the past have applied.

Um I think I uh tried to get the word out last year a little bit late.

Um this came to me today to so timing is good to try to you know encourage groups out there who want to learn more.

Um it's the Boulder County 2026 Climate Equity Fund that launches on July 1st, and they are holding a um informational webinar on July 1st at 4 p.m.

So you can register with the Boulder County's uh website.

Um then I wanted to bring up something that came up in public comment about the water bill uh issue of a resident who had a water bill not deliver and not get paid, and I will share a personal anecdote.

And then I remember seeing, oh, you know what?

Why is my water bill payment 260 dollars this month?

It was because I was not charged appropriately.

Maybe that was the same month, maybe it was another month.

So there are some, I will call them gremlins in the billing system that I hope get ironed out as we you know maybe are transitioning to a new billing system.

But this residents, you know, physical mail isn't the only gremlin.

There are other gremlins out there.

So I hope that staff, you know, I know that the city manager sent us an email on this, but I hope that this gets resolved in a way that is not penalizing to residents who don't get their bills delivered or are charged appropriately.

Councilor Gallegos.

I just wanted to put another plug out for our summer reading program.

It's ongoing and we'll be going until the end of July.

So you can pick up your passport at the library, or you can track your reading online using the Bean Stack app.

And there's going to be a grand finale at the water park for kids who complete four reading goals.

So that's something fun and a great way to celebrate.

And then just the final time I want to put it out there that youth advisory board applications are open until the end of June.

So we're looking for six through twelfth graders who would like to serve.

Councilor Villier.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, five quick things.

Uh, so first, next week I'm going to my first CML annual conference.

I'm really excited.

Uh, for those of you who have been before, please forgive me as I don't know how to conduct myself at this, so I'm gonna look to you for a little bit of guidance.

Um, second, uh, primary ballots have gone out, which is very exciting.

Um, Colorado's voter turnout for primary elections is approximately 26% compared to 79.6% for the general election, and in many places, particularly here in Boulder County, the primary, in our case, the Democratic primary, largely determines the outcome of the election.

So please, I'd want to really insist to folks to vote.

But something uh I'm just really engaged on a majority of Colorado residents are unaffiliated, about 52%.

And we have this interesting system where the state will mail Republican and Democratic primary ballots to unaffiliated voters.

You get both.

But you don't get a primary ballot for the Green Party.

You don't get a primary ballot for the Libertarian Party.

So there's this interesting element of the state kind of reinforcing this political duopoly that I'm gonna want to explore later with council.

Um, third, uh, echoing uh Councilor Fridlin's point on um uh the agency on aging, but at the older adults advisory board a couple days ago, we had a presentation from the Davis Partnership Group uh on the uh Bob Berger Recreation Center and got some really excellent feedback from the OOAB, um which is why I mentioned them earlier.

They just are so thoughtful uh and insightful.

So that was really really enjoyable.

So kudos to all involved.

I'm so excited to see where Davis Partnership Group goes with us.

Um and then and then briefly to close, uh just a couple quick reflections on uh the January, the June 10th meeting on the cemetery and the subcommittee uh partnership with you, Mayor.

Um, this is such a privilege to work on.

I am enjoying it even though it's a very hard, weighty topic.

But I left the 10th, even though there were some slings and arrows, I left it feeling very heartened and hopeful.

Um, and I think it was a real privilege to hear from a number of folks again this evening reflecting that folks are feeling heard, and I'm so proud of city staff who have put so much work into this uh particular effort, which is why I really appreciate your continuing uh kudos for them, but also pushing back on the misinformation that that we collectively are taking the easy way out, which I cannot repudiate in stronger terms.

Uh, we could have shut this down on May 5th and we didn't.

We are navigating this together, and we're gonna get to a good outcome.

Um, so I'm just really proud of our staff, our community, this council, uh, and really enjoying this opportunity with you, sir.

Thank you.

Mayor Proto.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh was fortunate enough to attend the Colorado Communities for Climate Action and O retreat.

And for my colleagues who are not familiar with Colorado Communities for Climate Action, it is a model consortium for moving forward legislation at the state.

And the reason for that is if you if you go to their webpage, you will see that this is an organization that has membership that is very much representative of the state of Colorado.

And I'm just going to read the names of the groups that are involved because this is both elected officials and city staff on the small scale and the larger scale.

And these are the members of CC4CA.

Adams County, Aspen, Avon, Basalt Boulder, Boulder County, Breckenridge, Broomfield, Carbondale, Clear Creek County, Cresta Beauty, Dillon, Durango, Eagle County, Edgewater, Erie, Fort Collins, Frisco, Gilpin County, Glenwood Springs, Golden, Lafayette, Lake County, Larimer County, Longmont, Louisville, Lyons, Mountain Village, Netherlands, North Glen, Uray County, Pitkin County, Ridgway, Route County, Salida, San Miguel County, Snowmass Village, Summit County, Superior, Telluride, Vale, and Wheat Ridge.

And CC4CA has an annual retreat and spends a great deal of time taking their potential seriously and reviews their policy statement every two years.

And we used to have CC4CA used to have 30 policy statement items, and a committee, policy committee, ferreted them down to 16.

And of those resulting 16, they are, and I'm not going to read the whole policy, but climate mitigation, climate resilience, collective impact and local authority, community centered, incentives and investments, just transitions, maintain and strengthen existing protections, successful climate policy development and implementation, building decarbonization, carbon-free affordable and reliable electricity, circular economy, emerging technologies, fossil fuels, and other industries, land use, transportation, and working lands.

One of the modifications that was pointed out is that we did not, and their collective impact on local authority, which is advanced high levels of collaboration amongst public, private, and academic institutions at all levels to meet climate goals by prioritizing locally driven and uh design programs and processes.

Someone pointed out that we did not recognize uh tribal governments and and or tribes.

Uh so the staff immediately took it upon themselves to get an understanding of what is the proper way to recognize uh First Nation um parties that are impacted and took it overnight.

They made as many contexts as they could, uh, specifically in Pitkin County to get a better understanding of how they address their interactions with uh local First Nation uh people and the the term tribes is what we're using currently.

Uh that was the best guidance that we had.

So I'm just pointing to the South because uh to say that this is a very comprehensive and conscious group that I I feel like we are in great company with them, and we do get access at the state capitol when other groups may not.

And we do not move beyond what the membership is comfortable with.

So this policy really does represent 49 very different municipalities positions around climate and climate change and how we can move forward.

This year the other activity we got involved in was determining what are the best strategies for bringing in cooperation or bringing uh making cooperation and collaboration with parties that could support us.

And uh I'll just pass around the impacts tool, but just saying this is the uh guiding document, and all 49 of us worked through all of these with um assigned tasks in a group.

So at tables of 10, we worked through identifying who and why, uh thinking strategically to choose intent and choosing intentionally uh to open the door in three different areas, then we moved into entering relationships and three sustaining relationships.

So this is something that you wouldn't expect people to do in a climate workshop.

But it was people skills.

And some people mistakenly call it soft skills because you get to be pretty durable to handle building relationships.

And this is what CC4CA does is how do we create the space to move forward on policies that represent uh or advocate for policies that are represented by these three different policy statements.

So I will say that I think our money is very well invested.

And I hope to be able to bring it any other members of the council into uh testify when there's an opportunity.

Um because I'm we're we're all kept informed by the the staff of CC4 CA of when there's a good point, good option to testify in the local.

I don't know how many of you have testified.

Okay.

So some of people have here.

Yeah, so one of the great things about being an elected official is many times you get to testify before people who are not elected officials.

So it is a massive time suck, but being an elected official, you may get um get that opportunity uh to to meet to match with your schedule.

And um at the house they they are on it, they call it on the hill.

In at the Capitol, at the Capitol, they really appreciate hearing because we do represent you know 31,000 people.

And moving on to the DDA before you leave that, I have a question.

Thank you for this.

That's very helpful.

Um do they start formulating their agenda for specific legislation for the next session?

When if we wanted to see something in advance before you know it goes further, do they give that a draft out to you and you have an opportunity to give comments or feedback that you could share with the rest of us, or how does that work?

Um so they're constantly watching what's being developed, and as soon as something is available, they make it available to uh the board members.

But a proactive agenda that they're pushing.

Uh that's what what uh yes, we do have a legislative agenda, and I I didn't want to drown you all instead.

But I can get a copy of what it is, and we don't know what's gonna come up, right?

But we know what um we think is important to talk about.

We're kind of anticipating what will come up, and one of those is virtual power plants.

So uh yeah, what is that?

Uh so I'll give you the background on what that is.

Okay.

And the staff is really good at anticipating what they expect to become uh issues.

They don't know specific bills, but they know kind of the areas that things might go in.

So if you can let me know what area you're interested in, then all of it.

Okay.

Maybe put you on the email list.

Is that helpful?

Yeah, that'd be great.

Thanks.

Um I was just gonna say with the DDA, we're looking at the umfinding and uh planning to um present to the public the DDA.

At the same time, we have the wayfinding, and it is a comprehensive look at how do we improve upon the way that people move in and out of Lafayette.

And the the when I mentioned the pathways, that's one of the one of the considerations you know when people move it in and out.

It's not just by car.

Um there are other ways, walking, biking, however, your device gets you here if you're on a device or mobility.

Um so I'm really looking forward to the uh entity that we do bring on board to do the wayfinding.

And there's no uh director keying is amazing at providing a very broad um group of options for the uh consultants that we bring in, and then they uh we were able to refine the options specifically for Lafayette.

So uh look forward to new wayfinding for the whole uh downtown development area or the whole DDA area.

Yeah, I think that's it.

And that term does that really mean signage, or what does it mean?

It means it means more than just signage.

And that signage should be provide uh support for accessibility, but signs is kind of the moniker.

How do we help people get where they are?

And the sign could be on the ground, it could be on the wall, it could be uh sculpture, but it's some way that you know that you're in the right place.

And some of that, because we the old town lafayed signage doesn't look like wayfinding signage for a lot of people and the parking lot signs.

What should be used for people in the world?