[BoulderCouncilHotline] Sam's Retreat Homework - Priorities for 2019 and beyond

[Weaver, Sam]

Fellow Council Members and HOTLINE followers,

As others who have already posted have mentioned, I want to thank the staff for organizing our upcoming discussion with such good background materials.  I also feel that this Council has done a lot of important work this last year, even when faced with contentious issues (e.g. assault weapons, predatory towing, etc.) that were not on our work plan that had to be dealt with in a timely fashion.  I also appreciate that members of this Council can treat each other well even in the face of occasional policy disagreements.  I think we agree more than we do not, with the notable exception of land use policy, which is of course one of our main issues to consider in municipal politics.  Here is to a 2019 where we find land use solutions that we can all support!

That said, here is my take on our upcoming priorities for 2019 and beyond.

HW #1:

14 PRIORITIES

Important to complete by this Council:


  1.  Use Tables Review (OZ zones as a priority, zone districts presented in 2-4 chunks to Council) and Site Plan Review Criteria Updates
  2.  Definition of Community Benefit Process for use during Site Plan Review

  1.  Shared Equity Middle Income Program design and pilot planning
  2.  Manufactured Housing Strategy
  3.  Large Homes/Large Lots
  4.  North Central Boulder Subcommunity Plan & Alpine-Balsam Area Plan (I will add to this that my support for the North Central Boulder Subcommunity Plan as the first new subcommunity plan was due to all of the area planning currently going on in the area.  Due to the Opportunity Zone selection and the re-development potential and displacement occurring in east Boulder, I support looking east for our first subcommunity plan instead, with the goal of preserving existing affordable housing and minimizing displacement, while incentivizing new affordable housing development.  This includes looking at our eastern subcommunity boundaries to make sure we include major thoroughfares within subcommunities.)
  5.  Open Space Master Plan - scheduled completion within this council term (staff driven)

Ongoing Projects that will extend beyond this council, but that this Council has taken major steps on:


  1.  Boulder Electric Utility (We have made great progress at setting out our renewable energy path through the muni, and it is clear it will be a more affordable and more healthy path than the current fossil system. We need to keep on with the progress, and learn our costs and benefits with more granularity.  It is our assigned duty to find out the facts and present them to our voters for a final decision.)
  2.  Vision Zero (I almost got killed this in December in a crosswalk with a walk sign in my favor.  My cell phone was in my pocket, which probably saved me as I jumped out of the way of the accelerating left-turning car.  I will be looking for more aggressive mode separation measures such as longer leading pedestrian lights at crossings.  These help immensely at restraining impatient motorists at intersections, especially when it gets dark during rush hour, and other measures may as well.)
  3.  Climate Commitment (it is incredibly important to focus on this issue as the science tells us that adaptation and resilience will be critical in the face of coming negative climate feedback loops.)
  4.  Transportation Master Plan - staff-driven and on-track.
  5.  Broadband - important steps taken last year, and I am looking forward to seeing the backbone build-out plan.

Fully completed in the last year:


  1.  Commercial Linkage Fees raised
  2.  Housing Advisory Board formed, appointed, and staffed

Other issues we will see:

I hope that we can stay focused and complete our agenda, so do not want to add or subtract from the well-formed work plan we established at the start of this Council.  That said, I will point out a few issues we will face and need to prepare for this year that can be foreseen and scheduled, and which are not on our priority agenda:


     *   CU-South annexation: I believe we will need to establish development criteria for the CU South development when it occurs, and enshrine those more granular development criteria in the annexation agreement.  The current guiding principles found in the BVCP are a great start, but more work will need to be done on this issue.
     *   Hill hotel project/Hill improvements: I think the de-coupling of any Hill parking garage from the hotel is great and a necessary evolution of the plan, and the staff work being done about how to direct tax proceeds from any realized project is very foresightful.  But it will merit further discussions as plans evolve.
     *   Homelessness: how to deal with severe weather sheltering (SWS) and integration of SWS with navigation services and other sheltering programs will be essential. I would like to see day-sheltering coupled with work-skills training (and perhaps life-skills training) to maximize the use of our critical homeless sheltering facilities.
     *   Macy's re-development: while currently a land-use issue that we cannot discuss very freely due to a site review application to convert retail to commercial offices, I hope that staff solicits as broad of a public input as possible on this major proposed re-development.
     *   Diagonal Plaza re-development: how can the City help facilitate the resolution of ownership issues such that a coherent re-development that meets City goals is possible?

HW #2

Process suggestions:


  1.  Study sessions: I believe that staff has been getting more succinct and more interactive at study sessions.  This is very helpful, and I love the approach of introduce questions to Council early in a presentation, use 15 -20 slides to cover the issues, and have 15 - 20 back-up slides for responses to anticipated questions.  I support including IPs in the main Council meeting packets.
  2.  I support distributing the CAC memos to all of Council.  I would go further, and would support publishing the full preliminary packets to the public, as well as the CAC minutes.  While the potential for public confusion about our schedule exists, I find that risk minimal compared to advance notice to interested groups about how the agendas are developing.
  3.  I seem to recall that every Council agenda packet included our rules and our committee assignments.  I do not find that inclusion in the latest packet - was there a decision made to stop including these handy resources?  I have struggled to validate my committee assignments in their absence.  As recently as Sep 2017 we had the Council working agreements, City work plan, Information Packets, and committee assignments in every packet.  I would suggest that was very helpful - in particular there are at least two process sub-committees that I am not sure who is serving upon.

HW #3

Committees of service - I am pleased to continue on the following committees:

Legislative
Charter
Audit
Council Employee Evaluation
Yateras Sister City
Community Benerfit sub-committee (I think, we've never met)
Resource Conservation Advisory Board (county-wide)
Rocky Flats Stewardship Committee (alternate, regional)
Denver Regional Council of Governments (alternate, regional)
National League of Cities, Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee (national)





Sam Weaver
Mayor Pro Tem
Boulder City Council
weavers at bouldercolorado.gov<mailto:weavers at bouldercolorado.gov>
Phone: 303-416-6130

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