um and are we recording I guess we are um this is the meeting for ped on April 12th and we'll uh go ahead and call the meeting to order start with the approval of the minutes um did you both have a chance to look at them I have no changes no changes okay great I don't either so minutes are approved and we'll start with um the first item which is development review update uh Jason I guess I'm actually going to [Music] go good morning Sarah Bergen council members uh Laura Perry Deputy city manager presentation okay there we go good morning a couple of things are covered today and talk a little bit about the performance of the first quarter economic growth and responsible planning engineering and construction we are focused on enhancing predictability and consistency in our development review process across the city and in order to achieve this is to our customers and of course all Focus areas are based on continuous customer feedback as our foundation we will continue you will continue to hear about all the four identified areas of improvement and our progress throughout the year and of course our overarching goal is to get projects to approval while meeting city code and regulations so quickly to provide a few highlights of the initiatives we've accomplished you've heard about many of these in past presentations so I'm just going to give a few highlights we continue to meet our our staff leadership for the development review governance committee across the city which helps oversee the various process improvements and efforts that we are implementing we have an expedited review process we're continuing to meet in person our Oda has free application meetings that are either in person or hybrid and right now are current lead time on those is approximately three weeks out and with the summer season quickly approaching we continue to monitor staff levels and augment staff where needed with third-party inspections to help with workload uh beginning June of last year the TCO extension fee is no longer administered for single-family permits and then you've heard a lot about our Public Works reorganization and the creation of a new development review division in the department the reorganization is complete with the last step being the consolidation of intake for civil plans in the permit Center this will be a One-Stop shop for civil real property and building plan submittals which will institute a standard work process for Quality checks of plans and provide overall consistency for plan intake our goal of course is to continue to partner with the development Community to ensure we are receiving quality submittals and providing timely feedback we're continuing to implement digital mylar recordings a large development review or large project development review process and then several departments are in the process and collaborating on updating the roadway manual Udo and drainage manual we will be updating the parks recreation open space dedication and design criterial manual later this summer and planning has hired a consultant to review the development application process so all of that is in process the development Community is and will continue to be engaged on all manuals technical difficulty all right when are the men I can't read that when are the manuals done they're done at various times uh throughout the year now okay thanks okay that better I am obviously a complete challenge in a hybrid environment all right and then I mentioned of course also we're continuing to monitoring Staffing for plan review uh workload and augmenting staff through third-party contractors where needed continuing on with initiatives and process license agreement updates we're actively meeting with the development community on the process license agreements we are moving towards a flat note subdivision plot dedication language process it will streamline the process save the development Community time and we are actively engaged with them in reviewing language and hoping to bring that to completion in the second quarter of this year we're working on building a culture of performance throughout the organization I'll talk about that slides as well as instituting a customer service survey I'll also touch on that and then last in the prior slide I talked about Consolidated intake uh part of that is also providing the development community that are checklists and better guidance in terms of what we're looking for for submittals or qual and for quality control and that way we are ensuring consistency in those Metals through our new Consolidated intake process future plan initiatives include plan review comments and tracking so a consistent way to track these across various departments and divisions be payment timing so there's various points in time throughout develop the development review process that the development Community pays fees so we're hoping to take a look at that and streamline that to save time and and also look at our systems to ensure that no plan reviews are being held for for payment that we're continuing to move uh we have a timeline that's published in our development handbook that's posted online that we follow and track against uh that timelines about 20 years old so eventually we'd like to evaluate the timeline in collaboration with the development Community to ensure that we're building consistency and we're working with them on better timelines for those complex projects and then last the middle requirements I touched on this a couple times ensuring that we are updating our submittal requirements to align with development milestones or various aspects of the development review process and help us get there and be successful uh we have constituted an Advisory Board to City management to Garner customer feedback in a consistent and organized manner or development review process and improvements new policies and requirements so the various items that I just mentioned in this in the very in the previous slides will be reviewed and discussed with the development Advisory Board this group meets bi-monthly in person with City staff and they have their first meeting last month their next meeting or I'm sorry in March February their next meeting is at the end of this month and the you'll see here that the vortexes of you know various various developers across the community as well as design and Engineering professionals beginning in March I was listening to roll out a new customer experience survey and this will ensure that our improvements to the development review process mean our customers needs that's that's first and foremost this will result in the continuous collection of feedback both positive and negative and the results of this survey will be shared and discussed with staff in the various departments at least quarterly and this will support a continuous culture of continuous Improvement in the organization we continue to receive positive feedback from our customers I do want to highlight one that we just received last week for the building Division and this was from a member of the construction team for the new Faculty Club Hotel on the fitness teaching breakfast and the individual said this was one of the most challenging projects we navigated all of it and I can say with absolute certainty this would not have been possible without the guidance technical proficiency and customer friendly service provided by the Aurora Building Department so we are hoping to again receive comments both positive and negative reward staff for the positive comments in our efforts to build that culture of continuous Improvement in the city in March City management established a quarterly multi-departmental in-person all-staff meeting this was the first meeting that we've held for anyone that touches the development review process in the city and the goals of this meeting are to really build a one-team mentality across all departments for development review so in this meeting staff were discussing key cross-departmental matters we're providing training in fact the next meeting in June we're going to offer a life in the day of a developer training and we're going to pull in several developers in the development Community to have staff walk a day in their shoots to build that common understanding of what their stressors are what their Milestones are and so that's just a flavor of the type of training that this group will receive we're also helping with the staff meeting to enhance consistent approaches across the development pre-process have that conversation in these meetings and of course first and foremost a high priority for the city is ensure that we're providing high quality customer focus service the progress made as a result of it all of the efforts you heard me talk about in the previous slides are beginning to show in our monthly metrics overall workload for Plan reviews remain consistent all departments have notably as you'll see represented here increased their on-time percentages since the beginning of the year and we are seeing year over year increases in meeting on-time reviews so if you take a look at the year-to-date 2022 column compared to the folded year-to-date 2023 column you will see the majority departments seeing increases in on-time review Metra metrics most outstanding is the increase in on-time civil Plan reviews and the continued perfect performance on issuing building permits and conducting building code inspections on time the building division continues to be the gold standard for the cities departments are consistently reviewing this data on a monthly basis analyzing areas of improvement and identifying solutions to address the areas of improvement the review of workload and performance metrics for the development review process has become a strong part of the culture of the organization and as mentioned earlier our goal is to get everyone to the Finish Line on their projects as a little bit about the performance of the development review fund so as a reminder the development review fund was created in 2002 to address developer demand for a consistent and predictable approval process for development land planning engineering and building permits the revenues originate from development related fees for various Plan reviews permits and inspections reviews that exceed plan expenditures remain in the development review fund and create a reserve to help support times of volatility if there's a downturn or we see revenues and expenditures fluctuates revenues and expenditures do fluctuate over time depending on the level of new developments and construction activity within the city and the resulting changes in plan review and inspection activity early projections for 2023 for Revenue are on Trend to the adopted budget and those have assumed a planned downturn of about a loss of 10 in 2023 versus 2022 for Revenue we're continuing to mind workload as I mentioned earlier and the costs for the active management of workload and bringing on those third-party contractors aren't paid from the development review fund and you'll see that representative of supplies and contracted service is fine so that concludes the update um lastly I would really like to thank staff and planning Pros Public Works Aurora Water and Oda uh the accomplishments the progress that you heard on throughout the presentation would not be possible without uh many staff and their dedication to improving our processes and performance there's a lot of conversation on this daily uh throughout the organization there's a lot of excitement about innovative solutions implementing ideas we still have work to do and we're confident that we continue to move a war in the direction of having the best development review process in the region and with that we'll open it up for questions uh questions council member Lawson or sunder councilmember Bergen uh yes thank you Laura the great information I was curious about The Advisory board made up of developers how long has that been in place or conceptualized so that we hear they have their first meeting in February in our meeting on bi-monthly Cadence great seems like a good idea to really Garner some direct feedback and support I noticed a couple tough customers on there I'm sure they're they're very direct with you about what they'd like to see so I think that's a great idea yes I will it's been a very productive uh conversation with them they're having beatings after the meetings we're engaging with them outside of the standard formal meetings so so lots of conversation and we feel being very productive and and beneficial effort as we Implement our various Improvement efforts in the city good thank you councilmember Bergen I have a couple questions um hi Laura thank you so much for the presentation I just have a couple questions um so regarding the customer service experience survey how many times are you guys going to do that as you know as we're growing and development changes different things can add into an equation that can actually impact some of these development reviews you guys you guys have definitely have improved and and it's fantastic but I just wanted to know how many customer surveys do you plan to maybe do like in a fiscal year or within a year or is it just once every year and then just a question on that difference this is a continuous survey so we're going to be adding the survey to Signature links is plan reviewers emails it is going to be on the communications that planning sends out but their letters um so we are not this is not a one and done this is continuous so that to your point we are catching and monitoring any changes that are occurring the development community and can respond to that and also build Trends over time so continuous think of this like you go and you visit a doctor's office and then they send you how is your experience survey after your visit this is exactly like that we want to know throughout the various stages of development review process how our customers are feeling and how we can position ourselves to best respond to any areas of improvement okay and then councilman Bergen I just have another question um my other question is as I know that in the um you know the day that you have like the new the life and the day of the developer and those sessions I just want to make sure and hopefully you know I know we have kind of our developers that have been in Aurora for a long time but I'm hoping that we're capturing new people who are coming into the development community in Aurora and I just wanted to make sure will that be happening as well on these type of things invitations to those individuals as well yes our goal is to gauge every aspect of the development Review Committee not limited to you know a few okay so yes we are actively monitoring that and we'll be extending invitations you know broadly okay and then my last question is um great on the percentages on all of everything that has increased just a little curiosity and it's still it's still great I was just kind of being maybe maybe I'm nitpicking not really but why is underneath the development application it's still like at a 73 percent compared to all of the other what's kind of going on with that measure compared to some of the other percentages that have really significantly went up and this one has two but I just noticed that that one was a little bit lower than maybe some of the others yes great question so I think it's important for each of the categories in parts of the process there are multiple departments that are involved in every process that's why you don't see Department names tied to each of the various steps of the process so for the development applications themselves I can let Janine speak to it as well but traffic reviews are a big part of that their workloads very high and over the last several months Public Works has been evaluating that workload the number of pages that the traffic plans are that they have to review and have identified Solutions on the Staffing site to help work with that to help address that workload issue and timing so we're hopeful that we have a couple of vacancies that we need to fill but once those are filled we're hopeful that we'll see those numbers increase do you need anything to add yeah and one thing we're doing is with Steve on board now is making sure that we have clear communication between our departments and that we are communicating any delays and additional information that's needed because sometimes that's honestly where we're stuck is getting more information from the applicants but making sure we have that feedback loop and where necessary instead of standing case manager being The Interpreter facilitating the direct conversation between the engineers and the developers Consultants so that there's no surprises okay thank you for addressing my questions I appreciate it um and then I have a couple um so you said we have a couple vacancies and that is in the traffic department we have more than just traffic it's in every we have vacancies in every Department yes yeah but traffic reviews the volume is really high you said so I just do we have an actual open position or two we have two open positions but we are also augmenting with third-party services for traffic reviews okay okay um I know I've asked this in the past have we considered using interns in the summertime yes I for the purposes of the reviews I believe it has to be done by a certified engineer yeah it would be hard I think to find the qualifications in a kind of a temporary basis so it's a pretty uh skill kind of position we're looking for would interns be able to do maybe offload some of the other work for those engineers uh probably not the other work that some of the engineers who are doing development review are also doing things like timing our traffic signals um uh making determination about where stop signs go all the different kind of traffic operations uh duties that are within a traffic Engineering Group are also being done by the same staff that are doing the development review so it's still a kind of a high uh skill set um group of people okay well it might be good just to have them in there for training so that you can hire them once they get their degree yeah absolutely great suggestion um okay and then on The Advisory Board how how was the board selected um because I know for example Norris design is not in there and they actually do a lot of work in the city um and a variety of different types of applications or development plans I mean yeah we we simply took you know through Oda you know looked at um several of you know the various aspects of types of development the engineers um the designers that were routines really work with but are certainly open if there's others that we need to be engaging we welcome yeah you might want to you might want to talk to Norris design just because they do so much work in the city they might have good input um you know across the board um in that regard and then that leads me to my last one which is kind of you know related to what we have coming up with some of the resolutions um and ordinances do do we let developers know um I don't know if it's through the Joint Task Force or through this Advisory board but do we let them know hey you know there's going to be an ordinance on um on prairie dogs or there's going to be an ordinance on on the um notifications and so forth so that they have input before we actually have our meetings or policy meetings so the Joint Task Force is the source where we typically have been sharing that information um Jacob do you want to talk a little bit more about that yeah hey Laura so yes uh councilmember Bergen that's absolutely how we approach it so in terms of The Advisory Board you know that's kind of a focus group or we want to Garner that more specific feedback and then we still have the Joint Task Force and we kind of time those meetings in terms of talking to The Advisory Group which is that smaller group a little more Focus um on something like a legislative item like that and then we would roll it out to the Joint Task Force in addition to City policy initiatives that we're working on okay so have they seen the ones that are on today's agenda um no they've not so that would be something that we would we would likely talk about at the next meetings okay and the reason it concerns me is because um I'm running around trying to get feedback on my own you know like what what are your thoughts on this and what are your thoughts on that one I don't have the time to go run down all the developers and try to get their perspective um because I just want to make sure when you know especially when we're passing ordinances that that are law um that we don't past something that we didn't think all the way through of negative consequences and so um you know I like a couple I'm gonna have questions coming up on on you know one of them and I wish I would have had the feedback and you know I have a little bit of time I guess between now and possibly study session when it comes up but I think it would be a good practice to try to get that feedback um ahead of time for policy committees yeah understood you can absolutely um do a better job of that yeah you know just an email that goes out and says hey these are coming up you know it didn't have to be a meeting yeah and customer Bergen just anytime there's something like that that you'd like to have that with feedback feel free to just let you know remind us uh as you know often Council will do that particularly on things like um the one that comes to mind is business Advisory Board whenever we're doing something that kind of impacts the business Community you all are really good about prompting us to say hey did we go to the business Advisory board so um I would just we'll we'll make an internal note for staff but obviously please you know you know remind us as well and we can get that out via email and depending on the timing of both the item and our meetings we can always take it to a meeting but certainly uh distribute it by email and collect comments that way as well but uh great point so thanks for the reminder okay great thank you um any other questions or comments from our our members councilmember Lawson Benbrook okay we'll go ahead and move on to 3B which is the IGA with Prairie point and who's presenting Steve this is uh yes my item Steve durian I'm the deputy Public Works director for development review uh give me a moment to share my degree and I'm going to put up a an exhibit from the agreement that I think will help to illustrate what we're trying to achieve here go maybe a better view here okay while I'm setting this up let me give you a little background what we're trying to do here is to create a seamless uh process of uh moving but the responsibilities of an easement through the development review process from the developer which in this case uh this is the Prairie Point development so this is uh basically a roaring Parkway between roughly E-470 and Parker Road uh it's the Prairie Point development being developed by uh Layton uh Clayton Properties Group uh as developer um okay yeah properly so you can see it better and so uh the uh so basically what is happening is they're building infrastructure that's going to be dedicated to the city and that includes roads and utility infrastructure uh some of this um infrastructure will um struggle a little bit um some of this infrastructure will be Crossing an easement that's owned by Magellan and has gas main uh through running through the uh through the uh for the uh easement well I'm just having trouble with this uh display here there we go that's what I'm trying to do so I'm going to point out where this easement is as you can see it crosses in two locations uh our public roadways that will be built by the developer and in three locations it'll cross an easement uh that is uh that will have uh Aurora Water Utilities within it um so this uh what we'd like to do is to try to achieve a seamless no did we lose you looks like the Aurora room is having some issues there this morning we've lost them right I can't hear him uh can you hear me now now we can oh good all right um let me uh take a step back what we're trying to do is to uh have a seamless transfer of public infrastructure from the developer to the city and also acknowledge the fact that there's a Magellan uh control of this easement and a utility that Magellan maintains within this easement so there's a series of three agreements that are that are uh that are in the works here one is an encroachment agreement between Magellan the developer where the construction of the improvements by the developer will be uh formalized and that will then be transferred to the community Advisory board or the cab uh this agreement that we're talking about today is an IGA between the city and the cab for an interim condition while the uh road is being constructed and maintained for within the warranty period by the developer and Intel uh an agreement that'll be the third agreement that'll be between the city and Magellan and really the question is how if should that uh Magellan uh infrastructure need to be maintained within the areas that are controlled by the city or by Aurora Water um how will that maintenance occur and who will be responsibility responsible for uh some of the work that would have to be done should Magellan have to come in and do some of this maintenance so um this agreement really just creates that seamless condition in the interims and uh it will require a resolution of city council to approve the IGA with um with the developer I should say we also have representatives of the developer on this call and they can answer questions as can I so I'll open it up to any questions you might have great thank you um questions from councilmember Lawson or sunberg thank you thank you I know this was a really um complicated process to get to this point um in terms of all the parties um especially with Magellan um I know we we sometimes come across this with other developers as well when there's an easement for a gas line so um I appreciate um all the work that went into it between the developer and our staff and getting this done I I believe it was um really important that we had this agreement so that the the work can um progress in terms of getting that road done and any delays in that especially during good weather um just further delays development so um if Dave Carrow I don't know if you're on if you want to add anything oh I think Steve you did a great summary and and I just want to Echo what you said um that we appreciate the city's cooperation and and team effort to kind of resolve uh this complicated issue um okay and I think we're at a I think this is a great solution um and um you know we're open for any other questions but I just want to say thank you to all the staff um and yourself and Steve and and others uh just uh you know getting through this it was a lot of meetings um a lot of discussion uh but I think we arrived at a solution that is Equitable for everyone great thank you any any further comments questions okay we'll go ahead and move this forward then to the study session is that the next step that's correct yes thank you okay great thank you very much and what excuse me got frog in my throat we'll move on to the next one which is the HOA notification process which is mine um so I'll just go ahead and start um and basically you know this has come up over the years um and it really came to light I think when when I had the Addison development public hearing and there were some a couple issues with um particular associations that didn't get notified and then you know come to find out they weren't one of them was not registered um and then um of course the you know the onus is on the associations that do that are registered and get notified to then notify their their residents and sometimes there's um that doesn't um go very um very well so so this is just really um to to express that we would like excuse me um to make sure that we have two contacts if if at all possible um and the reason is sometimes we have one contact for that Association and then if that person's on vacation or you know something else uh emergency then um possibly the residents would not get notified so we just thought it would be a good idea to have um have staff try to get two points of contact and um and then it also just talks about finding an improved notification process and I know staff is going to be working on that notification process and I think Janine you guys are looking to bring that back to us maybe in June to ped probably sometime this summer we board as a Monday another one mid-may which will give us some more time and bandwidth to start looking at the Udo and we've heard from numerous council members that looking at our notice procedures is warranted we agree we want to look at some best practices and bring that forward several options with the analysis to you this summer okay um questions from council member Law Center Stenberg okay very good um so can we go ahead and move that one forward as well okay that one will move forward and then we're on to 3D which is the prairie dog relocation ordinance that has come back it was it was presented at the last ped um meeting and um some changes were made to uh to the ordinance so um do we have council member um Mark Cano or Maria on the line yes ma'am hello good morning everybody sorry I'm a little under the weather oh no all of us yeah here as well councilmember Bergen okay great do you wanna do you want to kind of give an overview of you know since it came to ped um last month and there was a lot of discussion just what were the major changes yeah uh thank you and and happy to do that um uh yeah as you recall this came at the last ped meeting um and you might be surprised to have seen such a quick turnaround but I can attest to the Staffing improvements and process um that that was possible um so essentially um the last time we came to you all we really hadn't had a chance to vet this through um you know the various stakeholders it was in some ways a bit premature but you know we also expressed that we've been trying to get this ordinance um through the process and since uh the end of last year and so you know we've been trying to battle through um you know staff um working with staff trying to incorporate their concerns and then just running up against the holidays and all of that good stuff but all that to say is that we're we're here today with um a pretty different version than we presented last time we definitely heard the feedback that y'all shared around concerns interfering with the development process in it you know in Impact this ordinance potentially impacting that and so we actually went back to staff again wanted to dig into their concerns a little bit more and we actually met with the city of Parker and their staff and their city council to dig in a little bit more about some model legislation a similar ordinance that they have been very successful in implementing and wanted to explore kind of the mechanics both from a you know the it we get to almost learn from their mistakes in a lot of ways right they've they've had this in the books they've actually made several revision since and we've modeled this legislation based on their most revised version and I'll say just um we'll get into details but what was very heartening about that process is that they've actually had six successful relocation of prairie dogs working directly with the um the the developers and really Express that they've had a really great relationship also with the activist community and really being able to act as a liaison between the two um uh parties right um more of the advocacy groups um and and the development community and it's been a very successful model for them so I'll tell you that we wouldn't have um I guess changed the the ordinance had we not heard some of the your feedback as well as just the success that other cities have found so that's the the high level what's kind of different some of the major changes um uh council member Connor did you want to maybe go into some of the major changes from the proposed version last time and this time yeah thank you councilman everybody else so uh the primary thing I want to highlight uh is that there's just a 30-day period now um for relocation to occur and that is coupled with triggers where typically work does not begin immediately so you're able to just take advantage of that kind of natural law in the process to give non-profits the chance to basically go out and relocate these prairie dogs humanely during the conversation we had with Parker they mentioned that you know they don't use vacuums over there or anything like that they trap and relocate the critters that way it's much more Humane and it has a high very high rate of success and reintegrating these Critters into a safer location um one of the key things that is the same still is the use of Humane extermination this is something that Parker was very uh they highlighted quite a bit during our conversation because it's not something that just impacts prairie dogs but it also impacts youth pets other Wildlife so the use of Humane extermination is something that we felt very strongly needed to stay in here um yeah aside from that the overall structure basically takes the onus off of the city and the developer and puts it on the organizations that relocate prairie dogs so while obviously one of our stakeholder groups with this has been Prairie protection who you all heard from on Monday and they're very experienced in doing this they actually go do a lot of the work down in Parker themselves so um there's no additional cost to the city or to the developers in our role as drafted here or the city's role rather as drafted would just be to basically make the connection and let everyone figure it out from there so we empower the community groups let them do their work and then the development will continue and one of the things I do want to note is that the 30 days isn't hard and fast you have to have prairie dogs on the site for this to even apply number one and if the relocation work is done before 30 days then the project can kick off even quicker and again that's likely not likely to make that big of a difference because the site work typically doesn't start for a time after that things are approved anywho but if they are ready to able to get going sooner um then they benefit from that as well so um yeah basically the idea here is to just you know safely relocate the wildlife preserving our keystone species and the habitat that they create for threatened and endangered species in the city we're going to keep our environment clean for our wildlife and our residents by prohibiting the use of toxins and these little guys are going to be able to thrive elsewhere without adversely impacting development schedules so I think it's a win-win-win for everybody involved and it does look um I mean I like it way way better than the last draft of the ordinance a couple questions I know you said they can go ahead and start earlier um but there is that clause in C on the relocation that you cannot um relocate them between April 1st and June 1st because it's the birthing season um so it's the birthing season for the prairie dogs not just the black-footed ferrets I guess um what happens if the developer gets approval and is ready to go you know April 1st yeah so that's a great question um The Way Parker explained it to us is you know they have you know a pre-app um process just like we do and that's something that they make sure development uh the development Community is well aware of in advance um because they're um part of the challenge here is that if I recall correctly there's actually statutory guidelines around you know protecting or threatening endangered species so this is typically a time frame um where you might you may not be able to do site work um generally so State Statute is for the endangered species right he's not the prairie dogs right well yes and no because I believe it ties back into the birthing season since the prairie dogs are the keystone species meaning that they create the conditions basically for these other Critters to come around so it's it's a population protection preservation kind of uh law effectively that's my recollection so I get and I I guess my question is if why would we want them to have more sounds horrible to have more babies and then exterminate them well not exterminate them but relocate them exception on that that during that time frame uh no not as drafted and again Parker mentioned that that's never been an issue for them either because it's something that they make very clear ahead of time through their pre-op process so and it's part of how their program has been successful so okay and then my second question is on the non-profit so are they readily available so if the developer says you know hey we found prairie dogs on our site and we need to relocate them I mean are they available to right away you know work with that developer yes the idea is that you know we connect the developers with the groups or really and it's actually the onus is on the groups um first and foremost to actually reach in um but then we can help facilitate that connection um and yeah basically that's like okay there are prairie dogs on this site you have 30 days uh if there's no one available then there's no one available if there's not a site available there's not a site available and then the other conditions here apply so okay and then I think this came up last time that we would have to go through the County commissioners of the county to which they are relocated and I thought if my memory serves me right that Arapahoe County has no sites for relocation so then we have to go to an outside accounting and then we would have to have the County Commissioners permission so I'm just that if somebody can answer that because then that would delay it even further if it's if it's anything current process yeah um council member Bergen um okay I was wondering if you would entertain um a guest speaker from one of the advocacy groups they can speak to potentially some available lands and I just wouldn't want to misquote uh what what's available if that's okay sure if I can address the process quickly first you need rest that director of planning and development services go ahead Janine sorry the the onus would be on the the group to get everything accomplished within that 30 days that was one of my specific questions to Parker because I saw the same thing potential for delay bonus on the city or the developer but the the special interest group has to take care of that and I'll let them address what they have already available for sites as we heard on Monday okay go ahead um sorry my dogs barking so who who's here and I can I can address that I think um right now Pueblo has a uh pre-approved through their Commissioners a very large uh extensive area of land that they are trying to repopulate with Paradox of this this this potentially is going to start happening in June and the person in charge of it Ricky Jones with the United States fish and wildlife services and last year basically it is approved through the commission it well not basically it is approved through the Commissioners from Pueblo to have these prairie dogs come in to help the U.S fish and wildlife service this also happens at Rocky Flats as well um sometimes I don't know if they're taking them this year but anyway Pueblo will take and they've said they'll take any and all prairie dogs that they can get so that they can help fulfill the need to populate 10 000 Acres of uh with prairie dogs on this Preserve so that that land right now that's why we're trying to push for this too because it's such a great opportunity and they're seeing they've said they want to do this many years into the future so every season that they have that and it is already approved through Colorado Parks and Wildlife okay so we would not have to go through the County Commissioners throughout their you know a meeting and then get approval it was pre-approved not on this one yeah I mean maybe if this ever closes and there's a but most of the time like you said they most Commissioners do not unless they're working with fish and wildlife which is often the which is the only place that we've really had success in the past few years anyway but um if it's that case in the developer you know human has to be humanely euthanize them if that's the case and they don't have a place in because that is true that in other circumstances when they're not working with Wildlife officials it's not very likely that that would happen and that the Commissioners would give approval and one other thing just on the developers um when they so in Parker as soon as a developer files for uh application to develop he they the developers made aware through the city that they have if they have periods on that site that they need to start working towards this so we say like one month by the time that they have to have this done before they can grade but initially they'd get a hold of us and the list of people that they're you know us and if Smith environmental whoever else is doing it they'd have that conversation with us so it gives us more time that's all I was going to say that but in that 30-day period that communication can happen earlier yes yeah and it usually does because I think they're required I think they're notified immediately of the prairie dog ordinance and their um they're encouraged to get a hold of of people to just start opening that conversation up all right thank you um council member Lawson or council member sunburn yes councilmember Bergen I just have a question just kind of a follow-up in from Janine and Deanna I just have a question in general so I know that you said stated that it probably wouldn't have to go through the Commissioners or anything like that to move the prairie dogs to these different available lands but is there going to have to be some type of intergovernmental agreement between jurisdictions maybe from a from a standpoint because we are we are kind of having that collaboration or moving you know having that connectivity with another city or another um you know jurisdiction so is that something that Parker had to do when you're moving these to like different places or did would it just have to you know things available then the land is available and we can just move them yeah the the there's a couple steps there but that that's pretty much taken care of once the ball gets rolling but the governments have to the only thing with prairie dog relocations the regulations around that is through Colorado Parks and Wildlife and their relocation permit so it doesn't have anything to do with the city as long as the incoming commissioner so as long as the Pueblo Commissioners have already approved that part then what we would need to wait for is just you know CPW to say yes which last year sometimes that would take a week and sometimes less because this was already a thing where the Commissioners approved it and they were kind of rushing it so they could help out the U.S fish and wildlife service okay and then just to follow up that it does take it it's rushed and it depends on that but there could be with the state sometimes a delay has that ever occurred in some of the some of the relocations that you guys have done with other jurisdictions like with Parker to move them to other lands because that could stall a little bit of a development because the state sometimes depending on what's going on could be have something something going on or it could be just some type of you know application process that has to go through um have you ever had that occur where there has been more of a little bit of a delay which a week is not but even two weeks but I'm just saying a little bit more of delay well for so far that has that's a potential but like you said there's 30 days from your ordinance so that would that would negate it after the 30 days if that was if the developer had to get degraded but through all the things that we have dealt with in the past few years when there has been land available that's never been an issue because the developers usually it takes them a lot longer to start grading than what they anticipate in the first place so what we try to do is make sure the prairie dogs are off the land right before they're going to grade um and and to have like whatever a couple months or whatever because when we're working with the developers because they get a hold of us before that 30 day then there's never been an issue so far and Parker I think the officials would confirm that with you as well that it just hasn't that hasn't come up as an issue yet to where they're saying wait a second usually developers seem to want to develop at a certain time and we get them out and then it's much longer before they actually start grading okay thank you so much for addressing my questions well thank you so much for asking council member sember yeah do you mind if I just add to that really quick if it's possible well can we can I just want to get through questions real quick because I just want to stay on time and then I'll get back to you okay I just I just want to be sure to Circle back council member Lawson on your question when council member sunberg asks us thank you let's see I may have missed the answer to this question but where is Parker relocating the animals to Pueblo they're going down to Pueblo and I heard that uh Pueblo is seeking to repopulate the land uh what caused the eradication of the prairie dogs there in the first place they had a while ago a plague went that through there I think that was like five or years or more and also there weren't ever I don't believe there's ever a huge huge population but what they want to do is reestablish territory so that they can reintroduce the black-footed Fair once they have I think it's they want 8 000 Acres or more of prairie dog colonies so that's like their main goal is to get the ferret out there okay but there is habitat and tunnels and existing they they create all their own boroughs for the incoming prairie dogs so they're doing a lot of artificial and and of course they have a bunch of some prairie dogs and starting to build now but right now when they're first establishing it they create artificial burrows for the prairie dogs when they go in there they'll live within the tunnels created by the fairy dogs they will eventually yeah and once and of course prairie dogs build a lot of tunnels as you see in their Burrows so once we get them out there and they're they're manufactured artificial homes then they start immediately start building more and more of their Burrows so they make that that more and more possible as the so establishes that area in Pueblo as in like Ward 2 where I am I've lived out here since 2003 I've seen populations come and go and um so we could conceivably relocate them at Great expense and and effort down to Pueblo and they could die from the plague conceivably right I mean it's well they are fish fish and wildlife services is using and it's not the like I said before at the meeting it's not an enormous expense when you're going through Advocates if you're going through Smith it's a little bit more but not anywhere close to 10 times but um they also use uh they use they have like peanut butter certain play and they are inoculating they're giving them a vaccine the prairie dogs as they release them into the area they're also dusting the Burrows so that the fleas don't can't live in there so they use Delta dust and so fish and wildlife is taking many different measures to try to protect those prairie dogs from Contracting the plague gotcha what what um benefit does the ferret provide to the environment it eats it eats the prairie dog well no that's there's the the fair well for one the ferret is the most critically endangered mammal in North America and they're also the predator on the grasslands and they do provide a lot of different services for the whole biotic Community same with prairie dogs but they're because they're the most critically endangered they're about to go extinct in fact they've they we have we are breeding them here to try to get them to come back up to their numbers but they are on The Endangered Species Act and this is what also incentivized fish and wildlife because we don't want any species to go extinct and the ferrets did used to be everywhere because there used to be such large prairie dog colonies but I can get more information to you about the benefits of ferrets if you'd like on a different through email but don't they eat them sure yeah that's that's their 98 dependent on on prairie dogs for their food supply and that's why they're critically endangered because there aren't as many of them considered classified as an invasive species prairie dogs yes in Colorado they're both they're considered which is something we're working on too but they're considered a nuisance species as well as a keystone species um and they're they're nuisance species because they do get in the way of development and they they build I mean to me that's not that doesn't qualify for from the state and they you know build Burrows and and create holes in the land which create a bunch of services for water retention and everything else but it makes it hard for people to grow crops and grasses so that's why they're considered you know lots of different species are considered nuisances in the state including coyotes and other ones which I would disagree with that classification but they kind of have a dub they're also a species of most concern in Colorado because they do acknowledge that they are down to less than uh five percent of their population historic populations so there's a few different different things thrown on prairie dogs and and they are welcomed on larger grasslands and and they are valued for their keystone species status which means that they support 180 other species without the prairie dogs these other species um don't do very well and one final question I believe is um within the stakeholder process did we involve the development or developer Community to seek their input within in Aurora we talked to a Janine rustad again we talked to a few developers this is one we would like to bring through durab before a study session the development review Advisory Board so we want to seek more of their input Janine is that what I heard ordinance okay council members number do you have any more questions thank you everyone council member Maria did you want to follow up on your point yeah um now I'm kind of I got lost in the technical parts of who eats who uh in the food chain at the end of the day let's not talk about how we're involved in that process um okay so basically um I I just wanted to hone in and kind of refocus the conversation so um yes there's a lot of um more technical stuff than I'm the an expert to be able to answer on the food chain and ecosystem but I think the the main point here is providing the city providing an Avenue for folks who care very much about the well-being of our prairie dogs our Advocates our advocacy Community to engage directly with folks in the development community and the city being clear on on their role in that process right it's not too um necessarily apply for this permit right I think it's a testament to the success that other communities have found working with these Advocates that um that these structures and this infrastructure is set up for places for relocation right the scope of this ordinance though like doesn't contemplate that kind of outside process at all it's very much focused on Aurora giving a 30-day window for that process to be executed and frankly what was really great about the conversation with Parker is that we had not only our city attorneys their City attorneys our staff their staff council members on both sides is that we started that knowledge transfer right in that meeting we um you know why we don't need to recreate the wheel in terms of like efficiency and being able to learn from their process they have worked with our staff and committed to continue working with our staff in terms of the implementation for example I think Janine had already requested the certification like what is their certification process can they just send it over so that we don't have to recreate it for example um it can be included as part of the the checklist in the pre-app meeting so it's very transparent process and we've already started the internal knowledge transfer with staff um before we make a decision on this Janine um we don't need any kind of igas or anything that was kind of mentioned earlier that's the question and all of us know that you just have as the uh forget her name sorry mentioned that you do have there's a process through the state but that would the onus would be on the property owner getting permission and then the receiving site giving the permission we're actually taken out of this equation Dan correct and then um would we want to you mentioned also going to The Advisory Board um just for their input before we I mean this is an ordinance and I always want to be careful with ordinances because that that's law that goes into our you know um final decisions and and so rather than you know if it was a resolution be a little bit different but um so I do like the idea of just making sure that we are not overlooking something um oh I see Sunbird council member sunbark has Panda yes thank you I I have received a text from a pretty major developer I just want to share it with you rope faster uh if they will seek developer input then I'm not opposed at this point will it'll give us time to figure out if this is something we should oppose but I'm frustrated that this input was not previously sought by staff or the sponsors prior to reintroduction so I know developers are not completely opposed but have some questions here that was my point earlier um not on this subject but just earlier in the development review process of Are We letting developers know of upcoming ordinances that will affect them and getting their input and and so to your point council member Sundberg I think and to that developer's point I think you know just one more try to just get some input from them as a stakeholder I think would be a good idea um I think you know overall it sounds like it it's buying the onus seems to be on the non-profit um I guess you know just just wanna you know cross our T's and daughter eyes I will look to Jacob to see because the next development review advisory for these next Thursday if we can get on the agenda okay so to the sponsors um I mean I think you'd be probably okay with just getting that one more check from from The Advisory Board and especially since they're meeting you said next Thursday Janine one one final point I wonder if there's a developer out there that would work with the sponsor here within the next month or so or even just to try out the process you'll see how it works with the trapping and relocation and how feasible and easy it is councilmember Bergen yeah go ahead councilman Maria yeah uh council member sunberg would you mind sharing the developer that you're directly in contact with um would be happy to reach out to them before the next meeting um I don't know if it makes sense to implement a law before it's the law so I don't know if I would necessarily feel comfortable with that recommendation but if you share the uh the the contact that you have I'd be happy to reach out um otherwise um you know I think we've been battling against different timelines but if we're able to get to the Thursday meeting I know I I certainly would be happy to um one more look over you know we've already had developer input not every developer is part of every conversation as you know that's not very fusible but I do appreciate staff already having proactively gotten that feedback um I heard we did not have developer input I think Janine mentioned that there was your name to a couple developers on the original ordinance we have not taken back this revised one working quickly um with the development review Advisory board on the 20th and then the Joint Task Force on the 27th we could very quickly take it through those two to get a broader input and I believe that Jacob at Jacob emails out information so that we can get this in the packet and get it to them in advance of these meetings as well we really need to move on so I just want to I we've got less than a half hour to finish the rest of the agenda um personally my take would be to not move this forward and tell The Advisory Board as input I think that's just makes sense um but just make sure that we have their input um you know if it look it might just be totally fine with everybody and there's no concerns and and you know then it can move forward great well I'm comfortable with taking it to drop and then bringing it back or bringing it to study after that I'm sorry I said I I would like to I'm good with taking it to drab and then bringing it to study after that okay to that Advisory Board yeah okay um council member Lawson and council member sunberg are you good with it going to The Advisory Board yes I'm good with that sorry yes and the Home Builders Association might want to be included too knowing which has worked with other municipalities and what has not worked yeah I think they should definitely in fact I I mean they probably should have been involved earlier on Janine did you say they're part of the task force Joint Task Force that meets in the 27th correct all right yeah they're not they're not part of the Advisory Board they're part of the Joint Task Force so we've got two different we'll take it to both of them okay okay very good all right then that's the direction we'll take all right and then just to be clear everybody after those two would it go to study session or come back to ped I prefer to take it to study um I mean that's that's fine with me councilmember Lawson December I mean yeah after that I mean I I would suggest to probably go to study I mean it's been here multiple times so let it go to study thank you thank you okay would that be May 1st then first study session okay I'm gonna assume May 1st um unless we say otherwise I don't want to take up more of the time thanks uh thanks councilman Bergen thank you both all right appreciate y'all take care next item um I lost my place here is the opportunity zones Andrea morning council members um Andrea aminak development services manager um I have we have here Yuri gorlov vice president of the Aurora Economic Development Council who's going to give you an update on this tax program thanks Andrew good morning Bruce everybody in the room I really took advantage of the hybrid approach out here I was listening earlier and got here a little late uh yeah so I'll run through quickly sort of time um but I had to take notes because of we've done quite a bit a work over the last four years um on this since it was put into place um with the tax reporting federal tax reform bill in 2017. so we first advocated for the best census tracts to be included because at the time a lot of uh tracks that were just more residential and developed were being included by state we were looking at this so we work closely with the governor's office on that uh and then we co-host The Forum with the State Office of Economic Development International Trade uh we partnered with the city of Aurora uh to create a GIS website that was our uh approach versus building a prospectus or anything else that other communities did at the time we met with a lot of investors and developers businesses to get input and feedback of what this fall really meant um we met with the policy Architects out in DC so there was a group that worked with the Senators that got this included in the tax reform bill so we we actually met with them with the director of Mauritius at the time stuff Copeland to uh really talk through how Colorado could leverage things better than other states then we were invited to do a lower Economic Development was invited to join the Adams County task force that really tried to take a comprehensive look at what businesses and investors and housing authorities and attorneys and the municipalities in Adams County were doing and what they weren't doing and then uh former mayor legare was invited to the white house uh when the revitalization council was announced and that group was trying to combine or convene I should say about 20 different Federal departments to really try to encourage investors to kind of take advantage of this a little more I think initially the program was set to attract uh I'm gonna say uh less than 100 billion dollars worth of of investment and I think it's exceeded that so those terms it's been more successful than the Congressional budget office uh predicted and it's only four years in so there were some timelines up front in 2019 and 2021 that uh allowed capital gains to uh reduce their tax their basis and those have since passed but the real benefit of this program is capital gains that are put into any project before the end of 2026 uh is all the appreciation on that asset once it's sold if it's held for more than 10 years is zero so right that's it's a really long term uh Equity box for a lot of folks and that's why there's been a lot of news out there that you know the effectiveness of this program might not be what it was because it wasn't really meant to be infused into businesses it was more real estate play and all of that means um so anyway that's just a little background and I know two of the three familiar members are probably well aware of all that um some activity that auroras received so and just a few stats before I get into that um that there was a article in the journal about Colorado actually being one of them that states to take advantage of the opportunity Zone Program and not just in the Metro urban areas but in the rural parts of the state and uh We've trapped and again tracking is a bit difficult for this program uh believe it's in the federal government not being able to track some things but uh we we think that or there are sources that think there's been about a billion employers invested in Colorado through opportunity Zone funds uh of that Aurora got about 10 of that is going to be the best yes and estimate tracking that we have through a couple of different sources so being you know having five census tracks out of 126 I think seven percent of the population of the state I think having 10 of the opportunities on funding uh makes us seem like we've punched a little bit above our weight and did a pretty good job of getting the attention uh to the program and our census strikes out there through the websites through through conversations through meetings through conferences through all of that uh oh I will say project list that I have in front of me isn't that large um and I know Andrea has worked with a few folks um that we don't really work with in terms of housing uh development but uh jade green development which I don't know they might be on the phone uh and they're part of the rehab as it's called now good to know uh they they uh they came in from Connecticut because of the opportunity of that so that was a success it was one of the earliest opportunity Zone Program uh project that was reported uh in Colorado so that was a great success for us uh the other project that we um were involved with was the Metro Center the Redevelopment or development Springfield uh and those folks came in with opportunity so those are the two projects that we really um built in over the couple of last years I'm sure there are more that we just don't touch and I don't know if Andrea has any warning set on that um I talked about checked with Oda uh and they don't get that many inquiries uh for opportunity Zone Investments projects or anything like that which isn't that surprising uh and then the gis website shows that there's been 6 000 visits to it since it section four years ago or just over four years ago January of 2019 uh and then in the last uh six months I think obviously 500 and a little over the last year a thousand website visits or hits so that's a decent chunk that's a two or three a day that people go out there so it's it's being used I know that probably doesn't seem like a big number but I think that's a pretty decent number uh and so that's that's where we're all at so on the horizon uh the Rumblings at the federal level have been that there's there might be some reform to the bill to extend some timelines to change some regulations to a uh not sure if that passes uh but the administration that's placed today um but again I just want to point out I think that I believe this committee sitting with this program is just you know halfway through college right there's still a couple of years what projects they want to invest in and you know then work with planning and Public Works in the city departments to hit those timelines I think there's a 35-month window where you have to from inception of of investing in the fund to getting a project I guess start moving I'll say a shovel on the ground which is is a fair amount of time and I think it's very reasonable so I think we'll see some more projects that come our way uh our office hasn't been involved with that many last year uh but that's not because it's not out there councilmember Bergen you're you're muted um do you guys have any uh questions or comments council member I do um council member Bergen can um first of all I just want to make a comment um you know myself council member Bergen we were on you know when this first came up in Opportunity zones and we would go on our advocacy trips we definitely um this was a big issue and a big uh a big issue not at the federal level but a local and state as well and I guess where I'm having an issue and some people from actually from the community and and business owners who thought that opportunity zones were actually supposed to go into these distressed communities and really bring in where there's going to be kind of an equitable measure of where people can actually be invested into these communities and these are the people that actually live in these communities these are small small business owners people of my you know minority and women-owned businesses and what I'm seeing in the city of Aurora is more of the corporate that has been benefiting from opportunity zones and it looks like and I'm glad that I mentioned this at our advocacy trip I asked both of our Senators and most the ones that we visited that opportunity zones needs to be Revisited and cities need to be audited because the purpose of which these were the intent for is not really what's happening and a lot of people that I know are saying what's going on with the city of Aurora with opportunity zones we haven't even got an opportunity to maybe invest because we don't even have an opportunity to invest because we don't have the capital and so they I think the new interpretation of what opportunity zones are taught are referred to now um I think that that needs to be messaged out to people that are actually thinking that these were supposed to be intended for people to not only invest in these communities not only the larger corporations and these people investors that can do this but also these smaller in investors these smaller businesses that can make impacts into the community and hire people in their community so I wanted this to be brought forth because it hasn't been talked about for a long time I know I get questions about it hey what's is going on with the city of Aurora about the opportunity zones they're definitely not intended for me so and again I really think that the federal government should push for an audit on cities because I think the intent of these is not the way it is now and I'm not just saying here in Aurora but maybe in other jurisdictions as well so I appreciate the um I guess the the follow-up um and and telling us what Aurora is doing but this has no bearing on what I think the intent or other people should think the intent and I guess the rules have changed a little bit over time of what opportunity zones were actually supposed to do and so that's what my disappointment is here with opportunity zones in the city of Aurora and in other jurisdictions as well and again I'm hoping that the federal government and maybe with the push of the city and it may not be the push of the city but maybe a few voices can say hey this should actually be some reform on opportunity zones and how they're done right now and actually having audits on cities and how this money and how this is being used and utilized so um I don't have any other questions um mere Pro Temp I mean um councilmember Bergen but um it's just a comment on this and I do appreciate the update and I now see where some of my advocacy would be and on some things based on what we're doing in the city of Aurora and just in general on the top of the opportunity zone so thank you Yuri and thank you Andrea for the presentation council member no comments or questions uh Yuri is there any way to tell what businesses tried to apply or applied for small for the opportunity Zone and didn't qualify I know I know part of the problem was they there wasn't going to be an investment for businesses that maybe would not be sustainable in the long run like for five years um is there any data that you know of not that I know of but happy to dig into that and talk to some people yeah it'd be it'd be um interesting to see you know if if you could see who applied and and why it didn't work out but thank you very much for the presentation um we'll move on to our last item before miscellaneous and that's the resolution on the development review incentive and I think we have council member or mayor Pro Tim Garner here uh good morning um thank you uh councilmember Bergen um and the rest of the PED committee for the opportunity to present this morning um so what this is um is a resolution directing the city manager to uh develop uh an incentive program for development plan reviews um I want to talk first a little bit about kind of the the reasoning behind it and then um from there talk a little bit about why it's structured how it is so um I don't think I'm unique um in that you know I've heard uh time and time again feedback from the development Community about frustrations with our development review process and you know I don't think that's um I don't think that's all fair necessarily to our staff I can certainly acknowledge there are times when developers want something done yesterday and that timeline isn't realistic but I will say I've heard some consistent fee feedback from folks that are not involved in the same projects which leads me to believe there are some issues one specific are Plan reviews that are going to six and seven uh plan reviews and comments are popping up that should have been or were resolved earlier and are coming back up later for uh to be reviewed and things like that I think the other the other thing is um the uncertainty of the time frame or the timeline I've heard feedback from developers over frustration about the time that it takes for plans to be reviewed and I you know I I don't want to speak for all developers but I will say um you know most that I talk to are certainly um okay with living within um you know reasonable regulation any business is okay living within reasonable regulation but where it becomes challenging is uncertainty right um most of you probably are aware developers expend hundreds of millions of dollars potentially before building ever happens and uh you know I I know for myself and I I assume for most of my other colleagues recognize that there's a need for um more more housing and the longer that developers have to wait for those plans to be reviewed and they have that money outstanding the more expensive those houses get um so I think there's some common themes that I've heard like I said from the developer community that would make something like this helpful next I want to talk a little bit about kind of why it's structured how it is so it's structured as a resolution directing the city manager to develop this incentive program and the reason why I wanted to do it that way is because you know I think our job as council is to create the policy and to say what the policy direction is and then let the city staff develop it I obviously have some ideas as terms in terms of what this could look like or how it could be structured is the incentive Financial is it something different I don't know I like I said have those ideas but realistically that needs to um that needs to come from staff I think you know for those of you who have been in the private sector um developing and creating incentive programs for the outcomes that we want and for me I want to see faster view time so we can get things built quicker because we need that Supply I think is a way to address that if you if you incentivize something you want to see you're typically going to see that um so that's kind of a quick down and dirty um description of what I'm trying to do here and certainly would be open to questions okay thank you very much uh questions council member sunberger Lawson just one quick comment that I know it's not always the fault of our department and employees and sometimes the developers themselves can rush things and make mistakes but the importance of getting things done and approved can also not only increase the cost of housing but a developer can completely miss the market having waited too long and lost a complete opportunity to Market homes or a builder a home builder can back out so just re-emphasizing the importance of of completing what needs to be done yeah I I think that's a really good point um you know we don't know what the Market's going to do nobody has a crystal ball so you know when interest rates uh go up as they have recently I know you know if if housing could have been put on the market sooner um that might have helped some of our development Partners as well so I think it's a a good resolution I'm in support of it I I think incentives are important um and are effective in trying to um you know get the right the right outcome so um happy to see this and I guess um mayor Pro tem are we we're waiting for staff then to to come up with the ins the exact incentive program yeah like I said I didn't I I have my ideas obviously um but realistically I think um you know management staff uh uh city manager and planning director and and deputies and things like that need to really develop what they think is going to work within our processes um my expectation would be that staff would come back um as an information item and present what they um developed but you know in our structure of government I think the staff we we need to make clear what we want to see and what I want to see at least and that's why I you know came up with this what I want to see is our development plans and reviews reviewed sooner and quicker and more with more certainty and so you know what I would expect is management staff to come back and present either at ped or at a study session to all of council and say you know hey this is what we came up with and then from there it's our job job to track the metrics and ensure that what they came up with has the desired outcomes and and um I so that's what my expectation is is that staff would come back and present either like I said to PD or to city council at a study session as an information item onto what they what they developed but I did not want to put a timeline in here um I mean I'll certainly hold staff accountable and I'll be in the air about it but I didn't want to say it needs to be done within 90 days or whatever I think we need to do it right um you know and I think that's just as important as doing something we need to do something right and so yeah that would be what I would expect yeah I know we had talked in the past about um when we did the red tape ad hoc committee about you know like the three strikes and and the review gets to just go through and obviously um that we I think you probably agree that that was not necessarily the best way to do it so um yeah so I think this is a good idea any other comments yeah I agree I think something like that um is fraught with unintended consequences um and so that's why I I kind of wanted to do similar to what you see in the private sector where you incentivize um you know the activity that you want to see okay great all right and so we can go ahead and move this forward councilmember Lawson and December yes very good for me as well okay great thank you so that will move forward uh to study session thank you go ahead yeah thank you uh we'll move ahead with the miscellaneous matters um what reports do we have I saw in the chat that Becky Hogan from planning um just mentioned that they have uh the Aurora Mental Health Campus and uh or planning I guess tonight I think it's tonight and then also the Adu in Ward one um any other reports that are that need to happen council member um this is Andrea aminix from development services we have a small business uh report and an update on the city's small business Arbor program by Elena vasconaz okay very good go ahead Elena uh can you hear me yes uh great good morning council members and thank you for the opportunity to share a couple updates on small business as well as the spdc uh as Andrea said my name is Elena vasconis and I'm the small business in Economic Development supervisor for the Planning and Development Department uh as you might remember on January 31st 2021 uh city council passed the resolution creating the small business grant program with 2.5 million of our funds the program launched on June 27th enclosed uh July 15th we have been reviewing applications and disbursing the grants for the past few months the program will close by the end of April the amounts of Grants were five thousand dollars for post-pandemic startups and ten thousand dollars for existing businesses 320 applications were screened 274 businesses met the qualifications in order to qualify the business had to be complying with licensing and taxes and their net revenues had to be under 350 000 or their gross revenues less than 5 million we have approved 260 grants for existing businesses and 14 grants for post-pandemic startups for a total amount of 2 million five hundred and sixty thousand dollars a third of the way in the approval process we thought we might not have enough money due to the number of applications so we requested from Council another six hundred thousand dollars which was approved given that we did not use the entire amount we have returned five hundred thousand dollars from the 274 businesses that were approved 48.8 percent were women-owned businesses 30 percent Caucasian 25 percent black or African-American 24 Asian 16 percent Hispanic and 3.8 and the other category I am very happy to report that businesses located across all Wards have received grants on the sbdc front we launched the pilot program to help child care cooperatives in partner with Center for Community wealth building and the financial support of the office of early childhood we developed a nine-week class in Spanish to guide home-based child care providers on how to form worker-owned cooperatives given that the class was done online in businesses from across the state attended the class three cooperatives will be formed based on their geographical location Aurora Denver Fort Collins and Durango currently with the help of community wealth building we're providing Consulting sessions to help them launch their cooperatives and finally we are also supporting the formation of a worker-owned composting service cooperative and we'll be bringing more updates on these cooperatives uh thank you very much and I'm very happy to answer any questions thank you Elena good work any uh comments or questions thank you thank you for support um and then any any other reports I think um I saw something in the chat from chance on Havana and then the oil and gas I guess is in our backup um so anything else that anybody wants to speak up before we go ahead and close the meeting okay um so just because I didn't know today was possibly hybrid in person um are we in May were completely virtual or are we hybrid uh virtual we had talked about quarterly doing this hybrid so I'll give you a call and we'll get our next date for the hybrid okay so when we do the next um hybrid can we send out and just like in big bold it's confusing if we can say in person or hybrid we can do that for virtual whatever yeah that'd be great okay um I thank everyone for being here and um have a great day thank you bye thank you so much all right somebody escorts two visitors foreign