It is Wednesday the 12th of November and we are going to commence with study session. Um we have joining us Mike Dean um who is wonderful and amazing as well as Carly who is amazing and wonderful. So we have two of Aurora's favorite staffers presenting um to us this evening in study session. Mike Dean, one of our building department um inspectors that oversees a good deal of life safety um when he's looking at plan sets. And then of course Carly is the infamous traffic engineer and keeps things running in the city. And I believe that both of them I know Carly for sure may have some other staff joining her. Um, so I don't really care which one of you goes first, whichever one was up in the slide presentation. So, if you would bring that up, please, and then introduce yourself and those that are joining you this evening. >> Yes. Um, I will go ahead and get started. Uh-oh. I don't know if I shared the correct screen. Okay, let me try again. This is embarrassing. So, it's always the hardest part is sharing the screens. Um me minimize some things. Okay, let me try sharing this screen and then Okay, did that work? Can you see my correct screen now? >> Yes, >> there it is. >> Okay, good. Um minimize this. All right, this is what I get for getting a new monitor. Um all my settings are resetting. Okay. Uh so thank you for the opportunity to present. Uh my name is Karly Campasano. I'm a deputy director of public works over transportation and mobility. And uh here with me as well are uh Briana Medima. She is our plans review manager as well as Josh Hoffman. He's our traffic engineering supervisor and development services. Um and of course Mike Dean who is both wonderful and amazing. Um so Mike Mike will be presenting as well. And with that, I will get us started and we'll give an overview of what we plan to present today. Um, so first I'm going to cover some overviews of our different departments and kind of what we all do and what's in our purview. Uh, then Briana will give an overview of the development process to just go over it in general at uh more of a higher level and she'll touch on school sites as well. Uh and then Josh and I will both help cover the traffic engineering related items both from the public works perspective and kind of what we do and then how we look at traffic impact studies and decide on future infrastructure. Um and then after that we'll break for traffic questions, any traffic or um engineering related questions you have. And then Mike Dean will present on fire life safety reviews including emergency access, fire lane configurations, easement dedications, and um I'm sure all that all that stuff and more. and then we'll break for questions on that as well. So that's the general plan for this presentation. Um so starting from there, I'll go over the public works department and what we do in our department. Uh we have kind of three subsets of core functions under our public works director. Uh so we have an operations group which includes street maintenance and facilities maintenance. On the street side that those are things like asphalt maintenance, our overlay program, street sweeping and snow removal. Um so that's that group. Um under my purview is transportation and mobility. So uh we have traffic engineering and um I was the traffic manager at the city for about 5 years involved in development review. So you've you've all seen me a little bit in that role. Um and then we also have traffic operations and maintenance, street lighting, uh GIS and park aurora as well. Um so that's in our transportation mobility group in public works. And then we also have a transportation project delivery and planning group. Um and so that's under another deputy director in public works. They do kind of the bigger infrastructure projects related to design and construction. Uh so for example uh they were the ones who just built and uh designed the Piccadilly interchange with I70 that recently uh had that ribbon cutting event. So and they do other types of uh different capital projects as well. Uh and then in the development services group which I know you all interact with very frequently so you probably know a lot of this but we have uh the office of development assistance or ODA they conduct preapp meetings and really serve as the point of contact for our development community. Uh we have development review engineering which is under Bana's group. Um and so they review master plans, civil plans and traffic plans. Uh we have the building division uh which reviews the building and fire life safety plans and the permit center and then uh land review services and office of process improvements. Um so that was my brief overview of our departments and kind of what we do. Um and a couple of us have changed roles a little bit. So you might have seen us in different roles. Briana started in our public works group as a traffic reviewer for example. So um but we've been uh Brianna and I have both been here for a bit and been involved in traffic. Um, and so Brianna will take the next couple slides and she'll go over the development process overview. >> Thank you. Um, and so my name is Brianna Medima. Um, I've, as Kari identified, I've been with the city for a while. Um, and started within public works. Um, and then, you know, transitioned on the the sort of site plan supervisor side. Um but a couple years ago, I'd believe a year and a half, we actually did this reorg and that's where the development review side uh for traffic engineering transitioned to the development services department. Um and so as part of that transition, um there's been some sort of reshuffleling. Um and that's really where that the last few slides have really identified those criteria. Um, one of the things that the development services department does, uh, historically it has been ODA or office of development assistance, um, they have created a handbook of how development occurs within the city. And so it includes a lot of links of all the different steps and processes. Um, and on the right is actually a picture or a snip from that handbook. Um, and that really it walks through all the steps. It has a lot of detail. Um, and if you search uh on online for the development services handbook, you could flip through this, but I'm just going to walk through some of those. And you certainly uh can identify where your step is in the process here. Um, so one of the things that ODA or Office of Development Assistance does is host pre-application meetings. And what this means is it's a meeting where a developer um will come in with a sketch on a napkin or a rough done site plan. Ideally, it's a little bit more detailed than a sketch on a napkin, but historically hasn't always been. Sometimes it's a uh Google Earth with a little bit of a drawing on it. Um this is a free meeting. It's held every on Thursdays. Um and they get notes two weeks later, but it gets notes from all the different groups. Um and so that is a free process that or free service that walks through and helps the uh developers go through the process. Um with those prefab notes uh they will identify if a site plan is needed or not. Um so if it is needed then they they work through the site plan process. Um site plan processes are either done administratively or comes to you um at that plan that planning commission. Um later on in the process is the civil plans. Um once the site plan has got gone to admin decision or planning commission, we open up the portal so they can submit civil plans and we can do that more detailed review. Often times if there's unresolved items within the state plan they get that final, you know, compliance within the civil plans. Uh the civil plans often um help them move forward so they can actually start constructing. Um, one of the big changes that has happened to last year is that we've recently updated timelines and simplified the process. So, that has come with a new Amanda folder and a a simpler way to get through the system. Um, one of the things that can be co-current is the building permit. So, that gets submitted to the building division. Uh, Mike Dean is part of the building division. U, but there are other people in there that do the plan review. Um, and there's multiple different parts depending on what type of building. Um, and so we'll walk through. So, one specific type of review is something that you've seen before recently. Um, schools. So, schools have a slightly different process. Um, and that has been uh governed by thisou. Um, and so we have on the right, that's the cover sheet of the agreement between the school, the two different school districts and the city. Um, and it gives them some special process items, um, and some timeline items. So, they do go through a pre-application meeting just like the other projects. Um, but they have a oneweek turnaround time so that there's a a benefit to them if they get those written notes faster. Um and then the site plan uh within theou is identified to only have two reviews. Um and it is advisory then brought to the planning commission for review. Um on the civil plan side um the civil plans can be submitted after the first review of the site plan. So it's a much earlier in the process that the civil plans get submitted. Um but once they're in that civil plan submitt timeline, it is the sta same criteria and standard and process applies. Um and then on the building permit side, they do have some flexibility to go through the state or through the city. Um and that's something that uh potentially make dean can add a little bit on later. Um and then can we transition to traffic? >> Yeah. So, I will take it back and go over some traffic items at kind of a higher level and then um Josh will go over more about our traffic impact studies since his team reviews those in more detail. Um so, first this document called the MUTCD manual on uniform traffic control devices. Um it's hard it's kind of our traffic bible. It has all the traffic guidelines in it. It's a very long document. It's a document that the Federal Highway Administration or FHWA puts out. Uh it's updated probably every 5 to 10 years with evolving standards. Um but this is the document for the whole country that says these are what traffic control devices are. This is when they will be used. This is what they look like. Here's when you can install this and here's when you can't basically. Um and so by traffic control devices I mean anything that controls traffic. So any signs, pavement markings, traffic signals, um I guess also like construction traffic controls in here, additional information on bike lanes. So when you hear us talk on the traffic side about a warrant or guidelines, we're generally referring to guidance in the federal document, uh which is the MUTCD. Um so just some highle takeaways. Uh this includes guidance on when you can install allway stop control. for example, there's specific warrants that need to be met to have an all-way stop. Um, it's counterintuitive for a lot of people, but you can't install an all-way stop to control speeding. Uh, all-way stops are meant to control who has the right of way. And so, the different criteria for all stops is generally traffic volumes, pedestrian volumes, uh, or safety data for those. And the criteria of what those need to meet is in this document. Um, and then traffic signals as well to the warrants for traffic signals are a little more complicated. Uh, there are about nine different warrants. So, there's all sorts of info and charts on different volume thresholds on different approaches. Um, what if there's if it's a safety criteria, what safety is met? Um, and then there's some special cases like if you're really close to a railroad, that's a little different. So, there's very specific criteria in the MUTCD on these types of devices, but all other devices too. So, this is the document that says a stop sign has to be red in an octagon so that you don't have one state, you know, deciding, no, they want it to be a purple circle or something like that. Um, not that anyone would do that, but um, this is the document for the United States that standardizes all the devices. Um, I have a little bit in here on budget. I'll go over it pretty quickly since it's only adjacent to this topic. Um, but in public works, a lot of our infrastructure for projects that we do are funded out of the capital projects fund. Um and it's very much based on use tax and sales tax in the general fund. Uh there are also capital impact fees assessed to residential development which is in the UDO and there's a fee schedule on the website as well that funds some additional improvements. Um there are also authorities such as Serria and ARTA which I'm sure you've heard of. Um ARDA is doing a lot of regional improvements in the northeast. So they're they broke ground on the harvest and I70 interchange for example and they're building a lot of roads out there. Um and then um on the public works team we rely a lot on grant funds and then I'm sure as you all know developers generally fund and construct improvements along their frontage. Um and then we partner with other agencies sometimes as well. Uh so this is another budget overview slide. This just shows our public works transportation budget. Uh what you can kind of see this is for 2026. The majority of our budget goes to maintenance. Uh just really with what the bare minimum of what we need to do to maintain our roads. Uh you see a lot of it about 34 million next year um is really just for overlay and concrete repair. Um for capital projects in our department we only have about 5 or 6 million which doesn't go very far. Um a one traffic signal costs about 900,000. Now, for example, a mini roundabout, which is the smallest, easiest type of mini roundabout, is about 750,000. Um, I get sticker shock from these prices, too. Um, a set of speed cushions, so just some speed cushions all in a row in one location is about $20,000 to do that. Uh, one curb ramp could be about $7,000. Um, and then just even a pair of flashing signs is 10,000. So, everything is really expensive. costs have increased a lot in the last five years. I think the construction indexes have increased more than is typical. Um but yeah, I think everyone's people are blown away when they hear a traffic signal cost almost a million dollars and roundabouts aren't really even cheaper. Um so I want from there we're going to get a little bit into studies and how we plan what infrastructure goes where. And so we start off on the bigger level. We have a we have city-wide studies. We have sub area studies and then we have specific impact area studies. So overall um citywide we're currently working on connecting Aurora. Uh this is our transportation master plan. Um Colonel Riley knows because he's been to a lot of our meetings. So thank you for coming and supporting us. Um you can probably give this presentation instead of me soon. So you'll you'll get you'll give this next time. Um but this uh so we're almost done. This will have a uh visionary road network or transportation network for all of our modes. So it'll we'll have a visionary network finalized for vehicular traffic, for freight, for transit, for pedestrian, and for bike. Um building off what we currently have and what we currently have planned. Um and then we'll have recommended programs and policies for the future as well. Um so this will give a good overall view of transportation in the city and where we're trying to get to. And from this then there are different studies that get more specific on specific areas. So for a site you'll see a traffic study that shows what are the impacts and what is needed for that site and it'll have to conform to the higher level studies that we have. Um and I know it's complicated. There's there are full classes on this in traffic engineering so that you could spend a semester just learning about this. So this is definitely an overview. Um and then Josh will go over the next couple slides just diving more into traffic studies before we wrap up for questions on this. >> Yeah. So fun. Uh so my name is uh Josh Alman. I'm the uh traffic engineering supervisor in the development services and I lead a group of three senior traffic engineers. Uh you you met I believe two of them and asked them a couple questions on on the PC meetings. um Dean Kaiser, uh Jason Iiggo, and then a fairly new new senior traffic engineer, um uh Philip Dunham. And we're we're fairly new to the city, but we also come with diverse backgrounds in in traffic engineering. So, uh we're pretty well verssed in traffic impact studies. Um so when so getting into this so the cover sheet for the traffic impact study guidelines you can see here we've we recently updated it I guess a year ago almost a year ago and um we're probably going to be releasing another uh new update probably next sometime next year or maybe in 2027. Um but this goes over like when like when um when and and how you compose a a traffic impact study. So anytime like when a new development is proposed uh the applicant must assess how their project is going to affect the uh surrounding transportation network and that is through this particular type of study. Um the TIS is required under city guidelines. And now if you go into more a little bit more detail inside the guidelines, I mean there's some, you know, exceptions to the rules, but usually we require uh either like a traffic letter if it's like a small impact or where you assume it's going to be a small impact uh to all the way up to a master plan. Uh and that will cover you know several hundred acres and of development. Um the and then as Bana mentioned in her slides the during the pre-application stage you a develop a developer can come in and you know request a meeting with the staff and we can find the scope of study and then we would include we would include like the traffic area study limits the intersections to analyze and what kind of data to uh collect. Really the main purpose for this is to determine if the roadway system can actually safely and effect effectively handle the new site traffic that the development is going to generate. Um and then if it can't we the the study will require mitigation and that will be defined um in the in the study. Um also uh see here then we then the study will also confirm access locations that they meet the city's spacing requirements. coordinate and we and most importantly one of one of the more important aspects is to coordinate with uh different outside agencies such as uh C dot uh the counties and uh the public utility commissions when there is railroads involved um that's very very vital uh especially with with railroads because that take that that's almost a years's long process u from something that we've you have been learning recently. Um, and then really the TIS helps informs staff uh, planning commission uh, city council and the public about the project's transportation impacts and supports transparent and databased decisions. Um, so I guess there's a couple of several steps involved in the traffic impact study itself. And this is, you know, kind of going more into the weeds of things, but uh, you you really want to start off with data collection. So field counts, and this really establishes a baseline. So, you usually get turning movement counts at intersections, 24-hour counts in at midb blocks. Uh, we also want to get you collect crash data and everything like that just so we can figure out like what the baseline of the transportation system network is around the development. Uh so once you get that you want to see like what kind of chip generation that the development's going to get and this is based on the IT uh chip generation manual. Um, and they have, I don't know, several hundred uh different land use codes and it's like from uh like industrial all the way up to uh a Walmart super center uh so to speak. Um then so after you get your chip generation, you'll use your data that you collected in the field or to do a chip gener uh distribution and that will tell you which way that the those chips that were coming in and out of the new development will go. And again, yeah, you would use either the existing uh turning move accounts. You can also use um a regional model like Dr. Cog uh or engineering professional engineering judgment. And then you combine all that and you put it into a traffic model. Um, and you can see here in in the slide those the well if you can see it really well and the green numbers and and the that's like the it's called synchro. So that's where we model most of the time we model our our traffic uh data and we get the level of service. Um, and then on top of that, not only on top on top of the the uh level of service and queuing and everything like that, we also look at safety. So again, like I said, we collect the crash information, but we so we want to do a safety review to make sure like there isn't any kind of existing conditions that will be uh worsened by the traffic that the site will generate. and we'll try to uh mitigate those um through the development process. Um and then in that report at the end of the report and like you all have seen before when you're reviewing of the of the uh reports you'll see that mitigation section and and that is where the the um development will provide their responsibilities on how to improve upon the the system. So and that's in a nutshell the traffic impact study. >> Yeah. So it's a it's a complicated process I think. Um we're a little over on time but happy to answer traffic questions before we move on to Mike's section if anyone has questions for us. >> Commissioners questions for traffic. Yes, Chair Walls. Uh, thank you, Commissioner Hogan. Uh, first of all, more of a comment. Thank you so much for being here. Um, when Commissioner Hogan and I talked about sort of planning and what we wanted to do, uh, you're definitely at the top of both of our priority lists. Um, because these are areas that I think all of us as commissioners care quite a bit about. U, me more specifically about traffic. I interface with the public in a lot of different roles and in a lot of different venues. And public interface, traffic is one of the hot button issues. So, so I'm one of the ones that read those traffic information stud or impact studies uh quite carefully and I usually have questions about them. So, my question is about in the guidelines, the TIS guidelines, do you actually spell out or set a guideline for when a study should be conducted? We've been frustrated with a few of the applications that we've seen over the last couple of months. um the school for instance that we saw during study session they didn't measure traffic during the periods when school um drop off and pickup uh so my question is do you is there any guidance given towards the time period when they're collecting that data like for instance if we're looking at a development where Costco is going in or a large retailer grocery store like their traffic from 5 to 7:00 p.m. is miserable but from 10:00 to 2:00 p.m. when we see a lot of the studies done, their traffic's very minimal and the impact there's very little impact and level of service is fine and and and all of those things. So that's sort of my question. Is there guidance specific to when those studies are requested to be completed? >> Yeah, that's a good question. Go ahead, Josh. But yeah, so in the in the guidelines uh and I'm not sure if you were if any of you all have uh you know were able to read read those, but yes, we do have a table in there like when like when a traffic impact study is needed. So based on the size and everything like that, um there is you know general rules of thumb as to like when to count traffic. Um, obviously, you know, you have your AM peak period and your your PM peak period, and these are very traditional times and stuff like that. Um, as far as the school, and I know I think you were are you referring to the uh the uh science one? Yeah. From my understanding, they were almost kind of doing a worst case scenario kind of thing, but we would we would generally, you know, have them you know, do the uh the analysis at the time of the of the bell. So, >> yeah, that was the frustration actually with both school proposals that we saw. Neither one of them gave us traffic studies for pickup and drop off and both of them sort of empty traffic or uh ingress or egress from a major arterial. And so we were we were kind of like left thinking we know that there's going to be significant traffic during pickup and drop off, but you haven't measured that or you haven't told us what that number is going to be really. So that was a bit frustrating. >> Yeah. And I believe that was a comment though and not in our in our reviews. >> Yeah, I think Dean did did raise that and he had concerns that they couldn't see what they're projecting for traffic during pickup and drop off. I think we spoke specifically about that for the uh the last proposal, but the same one just off of Alama, we had that exact same issue, >> right? >> So, >> thank you. >> Good question. Thank you. >> Mhm. >> Other questions from commissioners. >> I do have a question. I have heard for years um and I don't know if this is an urban legend or not that traffic to actually meet warrants for a traffic signal that somebody has to die at an intersection. Is that true or false? >> That is false. That's definitely an urban legend. Um, I know sometimes when we're explaining warrants and if a signal is warranted or not, some sometimes we maybe sound a little bit like traffic robots and people maybe exaggerate what we're saying. Um, there is a crash warrant and the crash warrant is specific. It says there have to be five correctable crashes in a 12-month period. Um, and it's not that we're hoping that there are crashes or waiting until there's a safety issue, but if you install a signal where it's not warranted or needed, you could actually make crashes worse is what we see. So, if you're introducing a stop in somewhere that's counterintuitive, um, or if people aren't, you know, aren't expecting it in some way, you're creating extra friction and conflicts that might not already be there. And you're you counterintuitively could actually make safety worse with a signal. And if you think of our areas in the city where there are the most crashes, they tend to be at places that have a signal, like maybe Parker Quincy for example. Um, so it's not true. Uh, the it's urban legend. Um, but yeah, it's just a little counterintuitive and hard to explain to people sometimes if that makes sense. >> Yes, it does. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> All right, commissioners, let's move into Mike Dean's presentation. And if we have a little extra time at the end of his questions, um, and you said, "Oh, I forgot to ask Carly about this, we'll come back." >> So, Mike Dean, take it away. >> Oh, thank you, Becky. Um, just an introduction. I am manager of fire life safety and I work within the building division. What what's kind of interesting is is that this role in most jurisdiction is usually performed within the fire marshall's office with and so but um I am the liaison to Aurora Fire Rescue specifically to Chief Alec Alton and so that that is one of the key elements that I have working within the building division but it's also my honor to work for uh the chief building official David Skoonmaker and so I actually wear two hats within the building division but I work within the building division uh to represent all fire life safety needs. Uh other jurisdictions are starting to buy into that. I get a lot of phone calls from jurisdictions nationally on how to make this happen uh within their jurisdictions, which is probably not the easiest thing in the world, but they are finding that when you have a fire code official and building code officials working together, that means that there's an integration of all codes that go seamlessly through the plan review inspection process. And so uh I I will say for the last 30 years, almost 30 years that I've been here with the city, uh it has been very very successful and we hope that it continues forward. Um moving into uh the first frame that I have here, uh one of the key things I wanted to let you know is site plan, civil plans, and plat are the key documents that really set the foundation for uh making sure that there is available fire access and water supplies on site. But it does move through different areas that uh are even further from that. Uh we do take a look at the adjacent roadways and the traffic uh master utility studies that are done on those roadways are a key element of ensuring that fire truck can safely get to the site and that they can also have maneuverability when they get to the site to make entry into it onto sometimes fire lane easements or public access easements into the site. where wherever fire lane easements are required, we do make sure that those are posted and we do make sure that the turning radiuses are set to the equivalent of our largest fire apparatus, which is at this point the cyclone uh aerial apparatus. And so that's a great truck. It really is. Uh but as you probably know, faring easements only tend to get bigger and bigger and bigger. And I will throw out a little thing there because I I am a ex fireman myself. my last duty in the fire department was assistant fire marshal. And uh one of the things that I found is if a fire chief is sitting in at a a display of trucks that they have the potential of buying, the biggest fire truck that they see is probably the one they're going to want to buy uh because they're just amazing. And so I just wanted to throw that out. That's why the turning radiuses keep getting bigger. And so um anyway, little little throw out there. Uh but currently when we uh start dedicating these fire easements, there's a lot of parameters that are focused around that. Uh and so we make sure you know if they did end after 150 ft uh that there's an appropriate turnaround. The turning radi are there. If you have buildings that are greater than 30 ft in height, we'll make sure that the uh uh the width of the fire lanes gets increased. So when the ladder trucks start operating in that area and they put the outriggers out, uh that means other trucks can still pass if they need to pass depending on what the situation is. The other thing is is along these fire lanes and adjacent roadways, we uh ensure that fire hydrants are provided uh to support the fire flows that are needed for the overall site. And so those are some uh key elements there and those are the rudimentary elements of what we're looking for access and water supply. But it does go a little bit further than that. And so as as we kind of go through it again, we'll talk about the hydrant spacing again for adjacent public right away and internal to the site. Those are the key things we're looking at. The other thing is access control. A lot of times you have um residential areas or commercial areas that want to have gating systems. And so putting in these gating systems creates an obstacle to emergency response. And so with that, we want to make sure that these gating systems are put in. There's a license agreement or covenant agreement that makes sure that these property owners will maintain these gates. And if they start malfunctioning, we can have them ga uh locked in the open position. And if they refuse to maintain them, the revocable licenses was what they used to be called. They're called license agreements now. And the covenant agreements give us the ability to have those gates removed that they become a real obstacle to fire. And so it gives us an element of control that we need to maintain. The other thing that life safety uh reviews for along with the building division planning department is site addressing. And so being able to put per uh adequate access uh addressing on site gives the fire crews the ability to see these addresses from internal fire lanes and adjacent roadways to help them get to the site as fast as they can. uh obviously with GPS and uh and it's it's gotten to the point where we don't carry mapbooks like we used to on the fire trucks and so the GPS really kind of helps them get to where they're going. But once you're on site, those addresses do become critical. Um the other areas that we look for is fire protection infrastructure. And what that really means is what are these buildings going to be utilizing? You might have some with fire pumps, fire sprinkler systems, standpipe systems, fire alarm systems, emergency response, uh you know, uh radio coverage systems. Uh and it just goes the gambit of the fire code. And so some of these elements need to be shown on the site plan. Where's the fire riser room? Where's the fire department connection? Where's the front main entrance that's going to have the NOX box that gives them the ability to make entry into the building and access the fire alarm panel. And so uh those are key elements that we're looking for. Some of the other things are and a lot of people aren't aware of this but within the building division life safety has kind of become responsible from a building division standpoint to ensure site plans and civil plans reflect the accessibility requirements that you find in the international building code chapter 11. And so as we go through that process, that building code and its reference standards, ICCA17.1, which is another guide that ICC puts out, the international code council, clearly gives us all the accessibility requirements that meet ADA compliance standards. And so that is how we meet uh any kind of national standard that's out there. We are at an equivalency level. Um some of the other things here is uh required uh and with the site plan notes the integration with inspections. We make sure that whatever plans go out into the field have adequate notes such as on the site plans the platting documents and the construction documents that help our inspectors understand exactly what's required on site. And some of these elements you know are uh you know pretty amazing what they need. example and I bel labor these things because I love talking about them so forgive me for that but the one thing that you see is like emergency responder communication coverage systems buildings over 50,000 square feet uh are required to have emergency responder radio coverage in the building so fire crews police and ambulance can talk on their radios within those buildings when it's needed and so we put a note on the site plan that basically says what those requirements are gating system there's a note on the site plan that gives that criteria of what we're looking for. And so when you kind of put all this together is what we're really setting the site plan up and several plans up for is the future inspections that the fire prevention bureau is going to be associated to. And when they go out on site and they want to know where the fire lane easements are, where the FDC is supposed to be, uh what systems may be within this building that they are responsible for, they can get this information off the approved plans that we go through within the building division. And so, uh it's kind of a a kind of a fast way to say that. Um one of the things that I put here in this category here, the plat reviews are very very very simple. The plan has to match the fire lane requirements that were associated to the site plan and civil plan. And we also look for pocket utility easements that are associated to fire hydrant locations. And then we also make sure the required notes are on the plans for like a covenant agreement. That's like a lease agreement. And uh and we also make sure that ingress and egress uh uh annotations are put in there. So legally, it gives us the right to go onto the site with emergency equipment and holds us harmless if any damage is actually done during the process of an emergency response. And so that's kind of the the nuts and bolts of this statement that's going on here. Um um one of the questions that was asked uh was concerning school plan review and I wanted to share with you uh the city of Aurora building division is an IEES accredited building division. We are one of I think about 20 building divisions in the country in the entire country that have this accreditation through IAS intern the the inter international accreditation association. And so with that this kind of transitions over to the state of Colorado we are also classified as by the division of fire prevention and control as a prequalified building division. as a pre-qualified building division, we can review schools, we can uh community colleges, charter schools, and we do that on a regular basis. Now, one of the key things with the schools is is that they have to designate and request that we are the pre-qualified building division that's going to do their reviews. And we don't do all the review processes, which is interesting. We do uh you know the mechanical, electrical, plumbing, the fireife safety, but the electrical and plumbing all go to state and the state does those reviews through the building division in the division of fire prevention and control. And so it it's kind of a strange element there. And you would think we would do all of them, but because of there are unions and especially in the state of Colorado, plumbing and electrical have really uh uh solidified unions and they do th that work on their own. Uh, one of the other things I would kind of share with you is is that um, when the school districts uh, go through a process with us, uh, they if they decide to go through the state, they still have to go through the Aurora building division uh, fire life safety group for all reviews associated to fire protection systems. The state always defers that back to us even though we haven't been selected for the uh, the overall construction review process. And so I I will share this with you. Aurora public schools. They come through us very often. Very often. Every now and then Cherry Creek Schools comes through our our office. Uh but sometimes they'll decide to go through the state because they are improving their processes in the state to make them more um uh I guess attainable uh to get a permit within a certain uh period of time. We do know that schools have bond issues and they always have to open in August and they've got a deadline. And so we are completely aware of that. So our goal is to always make sure that they are covered in any kind of a review process to get them to that finish line so that they can open those doors and school starts and that is our goal to work with them every way that we can. So just be aware of that. Um there was another question that came up about is IBC more or less restrictive than it was 5 years ago? uh five years ago we were under the 2015 international uh building code series which included fire code everything else. Uh the one thing I will share with you is as these codes evolve the international code council updates their codes every 3 years and so every 3 years uh we get a new code and we all have to jump in and we have to figure out what all this means and what their changes were. ITC is very good at actually indicating what significant changes occur. And one of the things I wanted to point out to you is is that the codes evolve based on situational elements that occur every 3 years. And they make these upgrades to it. And a lot of the elements that they they're basing their code assessments on are performance evaluations uh that they feel are improvements to the code. And one of the things that usually happens is is that does it become more restrictive? I I would say that there are new restrictive elements that may be presented, but they're based on an actual need. And I'll give you an example. One of the one of the things with um uh the fire code was is what we were missing was emergency responder radio coverage in buildings for emergency responders. And after 9/11, it got introduced into the code in the 2003 International Building Code and Fire Code. And so with that, you see these evolving patterns based on things that have happened. So I thought it was kind of interesting, Becky, you had kind of indicated that, you know, sometimes is there a knee-jerk reaction to making these requirements, and there is. And within the building codes, it's usually some kind of a element. Rhode Island, uh, Cottonwood fire. I mean, it just goes on and on and on, but these things do change. And so, I I'll try not to belabor that, even though I like talking about those things, but uh, the codes are much much better. And what makes them better is the ability for an architect of record to submit for what's called a request for modification or request for alternate alternative material. And so when they do that, that gives them the ability to actually establish a design that meets the equivalencies of the building or fire code or whatever code they're addressing and uh gives us the ability to work with them to make their designs work when we can. And so um the last slide here, um Aurora does Aurora have differing codes from the IBC? And one of the things that a lot of people uh are not aware of is we have chapter 22 within the city ordinance and chapter 66. Chapter 22 is for the building code and that's all the amendments that we have to the international building code. Chapter 66 is is the same thing for the international fire code. And as we uh determine there's certain things that need to be modified within the codes, we have to present things to uh the council uh for approval uh through and we make sure that our board of appeals actually take as an opportunity to look at it, make an assessment before we go to the council to make any modifications or changes. We can't do it in in a vacuum. it it has to be everyone's got to be aware of what we're doing and why the need is there and what the request is being made upon. And so I I just wanted to kind of point out to you uh that the the building code, barcode, mechanical code, if you look at the very back section of it, there are standards there. Uh and so these standards are reference standards. An example from the fire code, National Fire Protection Association has a slew of codes that are required for uh NFPA13 sprinkler, NFPA72 of fire alarms, and they reference those codes so that we have uh a code outside the fire code that references exactly how to install something and what is required to do that. So the code fire code requires it. AFPA tells you how to do it. And that that's the kind of the general standard there. And so I think with that those are uh my standard comments. Is there anything I've missed that you would like to address? >> Commissioners questions >> please. I just want to say >> Commissioner Bush. >> Yes. Uh thank you. I I just want to say thank you to all all of the uh the presenters. I mean, this has been very very detailed and very clear and uh I've been on the the planning commission for a while and this is the most information that that I've gotten with reference to this particular uh uh topic and I'm uh I'm just elated really. So, thank you um co-chair Hogan and uh um uh this this is as you can see I'm excited about it. So, >> other questions? >> Commissioner Hogan? >> Yes, please. >> Um not so much a question. I think um what what Mike presented was pretty clear. I just wanted to join uh Commissioner Bush in in saying thank you to both of you guys and your departments. I think you certainly represent departments that aren't glittery or shiny or the token departments that that people love to talk about. Um probably the departments that people love to curse about. Uh but I would just like to thank both of you and your departments. Uh the work that you guys do and the work that's evolving. I I can say from my first term serving with the commission to this term like traffic studies have been presented differently in a more clear way. Um things are much more easily digestible and just the way that reviews seem to be happening now in this term versus my first things have improved. I mean 100fold let's say and I think that you you guys really don't hear thank you and great job enough. I I think that both of your divisions, your departments are doing an incredible amount of work and and I don't know if council members have engaged both of you independently, but I definitely will put it in a few's ear with what Commissioner Bush said. We need to get more of this information out to the public. Um, I think it's important that these basically the presentations that we had tonight were were pretty brief but highly informative and these are a lot of key points that we hear over and over and over again during public testimony that just isn't out there very much and it's usually a lot of the people that do attend the ward meetings. Um, so I think if you have the opportunity, please take a council member up on that. I think this information has to get out there. you guys are doing a phenomenal job and and we have to continue to to push towards educating the public as much as we can. So, thank you guys. >> Thank you, >> Commissioner Riley. Go ahead. >> Um, as Carly said, I've been to quite a few of these events and I found that I've been going to a lot of the town halls too for the council members and uh the Carly show is on travel right now. It for the last four town halls I've been to, this information is being presented. It's unfortunate that you only get 20 people or so per town hall, but u I know the information is being disseminated and frankly it's helped me a lot. A matter of fact, tonight we're going to be talking about a particular issue where um fire and life safety might be a consideration. So, uh this is great information and it helps us uh make better decisions. But I would encourage if you don't go to the town halls, they're pretty interesting. Thank you. Any other followup from commissioners? Well, thank you again. Um, Carly, you and your team did an excellent job. Mike Dean, of course, you're the rock star. So, thank you so so so much for this information. Um, I hope that you have a a wonderful and enjoyable night. Thank you again and we hope to see you next year with a presentation. similar to this and just to see what's changed. Thank you again. >> Sounds great. Thank you for the opportunity. >> And folks, we will see you back here at 610 under Chair Wall's guidance. >> Right. Great job. Thanks.