Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Woo! [Music] The study session of the Aurora City Council for Monday, August 25th, 2025 is called to order. Would the clerk please call the role? >> Mayor Kaufman >> here. >> Council member Bergen >> here. >> Council member Kums >> present. Council member Gardner >> here. Council member Hancock >> here. >> Council member Dinsky >> here. >> Council member Cass >> here. >> Council member Lawson. >> Council member Medina >> here. >> Council member Mario >> present. Mayor Pro Timber Well, there's no uh mayor's update. Are there any issue updates? I'm seeing none. Is there any objection to moving the consent calendar forward? Item number 2A through 2C. Seeing none, the consent calendar will move forward. Uh item number 3A, uh 2025, uh spring season community investment financing program round. Um Sarah Pium, manager of community development, housing and community services. >> Thank you, mayor. Thank you, council. My name is Sarah Pium. I'm the housing and community development manager. I'm here to share with you our 2025 community investment financing round for the spring round. muted. >> I apologize. Um the 2025 spring round, this uh community investment financing round was set to um satisfy the housing strategy set back in 2020. Our application components align with the housing strategy and and we meet to identify housing needs in the community, serve the de demographics of our community around the average median income and provide cost-effective ways of leveraging affordable housing. Our NO was uh sent out on March the 7th. Our application period opened on March the 7th and our application closed on on April 30th. We had a review panel of planning, finance, community development, and our citizens advisory committee on housing and community development. We had um $25,743,930 in private activity bonds. And private activity bonds are a special type of tax exempt municipal bond that provides lowcost financing for private sector projects that serve a public person uh purpose. State and local governments often act as conduit issuers, which uh the city of Aurora is a conduit issuer. And these bonds are issued on behalf of of to private entities, allowing for them to have interest paid to bond holders from exempt um federal income tax. We also had 2,53,715 in home funds and $2,378,086 in CDBG funds for a total of $30,175,731. The total amount requested was 21 20,435,000. We awarded 27,778,930 which included 137 new units to our housing stock and then um we had additional 200 units that are already in our pipeline that requested additional funding. We had five applications. Um Sanctuary on PTOAC applied for 700,000 in uh home funds. The Stables uh requested 935,000 in home funds. Crossbar Commons requested 1.5 million. Font View Heights um that was for Related. They requested 17.3 million in private activity bonds and Ashberry Park via related as well requested 4 million in private activity bonds. The Stables is a Grovewood community development project uh on Exposition Avenue in Ward 3. They're proposing to build 85 units for a targeted income of 80% or or below AMI. They requested 935,000 in home and we recommended 935,000 in home. Sanctuary on PTOIC is an Aurora Housing Authority project on 1290 South PTOAC in Ward 4 and that's 43 units targeting 50% AMI or below. They requested 700,000. We recommended zero in funding. Mont View Heights is a related affordable. This project is already a built um project. However, that's going to bring 50 new units to our affordable housing pipeline. This is located in Ward One. They requested 17.3 million in P in private activity bonds and we recommended 17.3 million in private activity bonds. Crossbar Commons is going to be um built at 55961 East Kfax Avenue in Ward 2. They have a proposed 115 units serving 70% or below the area median income. They requested 1.5 million in home and we recommended 1.1 million in home. Ashberry Park again is an already uh constructed project. However, it um will bring 44 affordable units on um in Ward 4 and they target 60% AMI or below. They requested 4 million in private activity bonds and we recommended 8.4 4 million in private activity bonds. Um do you have any questions for me? And um we ask that you um move this forward with our recommendations if that's possible. >> Yeah. Could you uh this is Mike Coffin. Could you do the last one? >> Sure. >> You went over >> this one here. Ashberry Park. >> Yeah. Can you tell me how So the the their request is 4 million. >> Yes, sir. >> And we gave them 8.4 4 million. Can you correct explain that? >> Yes, sir. We had a total of 25 million in private activity bonds. If we did not issue all of our bonds, then we would have to relinquish our bonds to the state of Colorado and rather we would like to spend the bonds here in the city of Aurora and felt that this was a good use to um just go ahead and give them the remainder of the bonds rather than relinquish them to the state of Colorado and not have them uh used in the city of Aurora. >> So, we really have a deficit then of projects coming forward. >> That's correct. We only had five applications this round, sir. >> Okay. Uh, any further questions, comments? Uh, Council Member Bergen. >> Well, yeah, good catch on that. Uh, Mayor, so I get that we don't want to give the money back, but um why why did we decide to give it all to this particular project when they requested 4 million and we didn't give it to any of the others that you had presented? We had only two applications for private activity bonds and so those were the only two that we could actually give them to. >> What was the other then? >> Um it was the um Mont View Heights. >> Okay. And they requested Yeah. I'm just trying to get like what are they doing with the additional monies? >> So just >> go ahead sir. What they'll do is they will they will invest it in rehabilitating those projects and then bringing those units on to affordable um units making them at 60% or below AMI, >> right? But they were already doing that. I I'm just trying to figure out where that if they didn't ask for that additional monies, what are they spending those additional monies on? >> So So we're clear the the private activity bonds are are a tax treatment under the IRS code. The private activity bonds um essentially allow a private developer to issue taxexempt bonds. So essentially to get a lower interest rate, the IRS caps the amount of private activity bonds. There's an allocation out. The city gets an allocation. It's actually not >> funding. It is different than the home and CDBG dollars. It's a tax treatment. The project then goes out and issues bonds for that. Uh, so when we're giving them a larger cap, typically they they know that there's a limited cap, so they may have been asking for a cap allocation from us, a cap allocation from the counties, a cap allocation from the state. So what Sarah's saying is correct. We like to keep our our cap allocation within the city limits, but it is the private activity bonds are very different um as a funding source than the, you know, the the CDBG and home. Those are truly grant dollars. there's money behind that. A private activity bond is really a tax treatment that allows them to get a um a lower cost of issuance for the for the for the project debt. >> No, I get it now. It's I mean just like our metro districts when they go out to the bond market. >> Correct. And because they're because they're a government, they're able to access tax exempt bonds for for set purposes. Because a lot of times these are private developers. They have to they have to access one of these caps because they're ultimately a a for-profit. They're not a non a for-profit entity. They're not a nonprofit. So they they have to get this tax treatment in order to do that. >> Okay. Thank you. I appreciate the explanations. >> Are there questions or comments? >> Mayor Jinsky. >> Uh Council Jinsky. >> Thank you, sir. Um I would just like to say and Sarah, thank you for this um presentation. Um, you know, I I I had the same question uh about the additional funding, but I think for me, um, you know, whatever the vision was, um, for affordable housing in 2020 and what you put on, uh, I believe it was the first or second slide outlining, uh, what that vision was, I I think it definitely, uh, needs to be updated. I think it's grossly outdated. Um, and I do not believe that that is uh the current council's vision anymore. So, I hope to um see a special uh a a special session uh happen to to realign our our vision on this. >> Oh, further questions or comments? Uh seeing none, is there any objection to moving 3A forward? Uh, seeing none, 3A going forward. Item number 3B, Aurora Emerald Ash Boore Management. Uh, Adrien Kamancho, manager of open space and forestry, parks, recreation, and open space. >> Hello, council. My name is Adrien Kamancho. I'm the manager of open spacery. and uh I'm here to brief uh council on emerald ashbor which has been detected in Aurora and Denver uh in late June. Let me bring up my slideshow. Um so um yes, emerald ashbor uh we detected it in the the area around um Seven Hills and Alura Park in um June of this year, but you shouldn't think of this in terms of a particular location. Uh our crews have been in this area and have seen a number of trees in this area, Quincy Reservoir and up north uh near Tower Road. So this is that is uh here and it's emerged in this whole region. Um, as you can see in the in the map, started from Boulder and it's been working its way through the metro area going east. Um, and then just detected this year in B in Denver and Aurora. So, one question is about um, do I have an asht tree? This insect only infects ash trees. Uh, no. other genre of trees and so uh there are not many trees that have this opposite branching habit. Ash is one of the few and also ashes compound leaves and this kind of diamond bark. And what we're hoping to do with this presentation is just so that you can use it as a resource um in case your constituents ask you questions, you can send this slide and uh they can look for themselves of whether they will be affected by this. So, here's what we expect. Um, once an ash tree is infected, uh, we inspect it to die within 3 to 5 years. Early infections are really difficult to detect because they occur high in the canopy on the south southwest side of the tree and it takes a number of years before that infection is apparent. Um, it infects small trees, big trees, and like I said, all species of ash trees. Uh, there is no quarantine since December 2019. Um, so we do not have to worry about disposing of material in any particular way. Um, and we have been working on this issue since 2015. I mean the forestry department uh we reduced our ash trees from 7,000 to 400 uh by consistently removing and replacing ash trees over that whole time. And so we are continuing that strategy because that is that is what is needed over the long term. We are going to treat a few ash trees either because of uh they're just large specimens and uh important to our city. U unfortunately our oldest tree that we have in inventory is an asht tree that's at Parklane Park. That one is being treat it has been treated and a number of of important trees throughout the city um will be treated but very few out of our 4500 we think less than 50. So also to give you a sense of when you're talking to your constituents how do you know that they might have an EAV infection? U this thinning canopy is a is an early sign. Um, and these suckering from the roots and epicormic sprouts are kind of an advanced sign. Um, at this point the tree is mostly been infected and needs to be removed. So, you know, you have a really pretty insect. Um, and like I said, there's very few symptoms at first. Um, one thing I would I would like to tell council and your constituents is that proactive is is better. Um, if you have an asht tree in your yard, really think about replacing it. And if you really don't want to replace it, please treat it. Um, all trees will succumb to this insect over the, you know, over time. It has nearly 100% mortality. Um, but the more you delay, the fewer your options become and because the trees once they get infected, they die and they become very brittle. Um, and the cost of removal increases as the trees get less safe. So, um, here's just a little schematic given by the, um, Colorado State Forest Service. you know, do I want to treat my asht tree or not? U yes, please treat it, right? No. Um it's easier to remove an asht tree before it gets brittle and cheaper. So, you can replace it. The city is replacing its public ash trees because we have funding for uh tree planting. And um and that is kind of it's it's a pretty one or the other uh decision. So just to give you some some context here is what we have in inventory. This 4700 ash trees that's on public streets uh in front of single family homes mostly um in parks and other public buildings. This is we did a study about four years ago uh estimating the number of ash trees in our community and the estimate came out to be 110,000 uh both on private homeowner uh yards and also commercial properties. The Denver public inventory has 2700 uh thousand ash trees and 33,000 in the whole metro uh within Denver city limits and we think within the Denver metro area there's 1.4 million. So in comparison we're in really good shape. Uh I'm very proud that we took the proactive approach we did to bring us to the point now where where things are I think manageable. So if you want to know our strategy it is basically just three things. One is educate. So, I'm talking to you now so that you know it's here and it's time to um to think about replacing trees if you have them, if you have ash trees. Um, also educating people on what options there are and how the insect gets treated. Um, it's a once every two-year treatment, the most effective one. And uh many arborists in our community can perform this service. And as I said, we ourselves are replacing our our ash trees and we encourage residents to do the same. And as a last uh resort for us, we are treating but only a very small number. We do simply do not have funding for treatment. Um our funding is around tree planting and uh tree work not really treatment. So this is kind of uh what we do as um as much as we can and uh we can't do a lot. So um that is my brief to council. Um I I put this list together of of resources. Again, feel free to hand this presentation to your constituents that have any questions. Um, the Arapjo County Extension is a great resource. Uh, as well as us. They can always call our office and we can answer any questions. Master Gardener also very big resource. Um, are there any questions from council? >> Yeah, I have a question, Mike Hoffman, mayor. And that is that that are you saying that unless treated eventually all trees will be all ash trees will be infected? >> Yes. Uh both uh untreated and treated. If you treat you have to treat your for the treere's entire lifespan and a from the from the science that I've seen that after a while uh trees will still succumb to EAB infections but it does slow it down quite a bit >> uh yes thank you um just what are what are you recommending people replace these trees with >> uh the city forestry office has a list of uh species they recommend for rightway planting. So any of that list of species will work. Uh there's a number of oak species, a number of elm species. Um there's I think 25 different species or 30 different species that we have on there. So there's there's quite a bit of of selection to choose from. >> Are these But are these ash ones? Maybe they're the I guess they're the big ones, right? The really huge trees. Um they can be I mean if you're thinking of the biggest trees we have natively in our in our ecosystem are um cottonwoods >> right? No I was just wondering are these the ones that I'm seeing in uh tree lawns >> some of them? Yeah, in a lot of developments before 2000, they ash was a very common species that developers planted. Um, since uh 2015, we uh in our development process have not allowed developers to plant ash trees. >> That's >> So, but there are still some out there. Yes. >> Okay. Yeah, that's what I was getting at is just um not having them in the tree lines. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. Just a point of clarification, you're saying that there's no treatment that really ultimately works. >> Ultimately, no. Um, over a long period of time, every tree will succumb. >> Okay. >> Uh, Mayor Sunberg, >> uh, for Tim, >> thanks for the presentation. Have we worked with the nurseries and those who sell trees to not sell these trees? Yeah. Um, yes, we've talked to our suppliers about it. Um, noticing when it's on their catalog and asking them, hey, you know, are you aware of this? As far as I know that the professional nurseries, uh, maybe put my foot in my mouth here, but have not really pushed this species, this these couple of species, green ash and and white ash are the are the ones that you find in nurseries. U, but I'm not going to say there's not some out there somewhere. >> Just wondering if Home Depot and NYX are uh carrying these things. >> Yeah. um it would be to their peril to um to to sell this species because it does eat small trees too. Um so the trees on their lots will also get infected. >> Thank you. >> Further questions or comments? >> Okay, this >> I'm sorry, >> Mayor Coffman. This is Brian Green, director of parks, recreation space. I wanted to make one comment that and thank Adrian for his presentation and make one comment that all this information is on our website as well. So if people go to aurorv.orgtreees they could find all this information as well as more detailed guidance than we could share here tonight. So thank you. >> Thank you. Well, >> thank you Brian. >> A little disheartening. I think I have one of them in my front yard. Yeah. >> Yeah. Treat star treatment on it. um and think about replacing it eventually, >> right? Okay. Uh further questions or comments? Seeing none, this was a for information only. So, thank you very much. Appreciate it. >> You're welcome, council. Thank you very much for allowing me to present. >> Item number 3C, uh Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA Phase One Transition Plan Update. Um Carllin Shorb uh senior project manager uh general uh management. >> Good evening, mayor and uh members of the city council. Uh I'm Carlen Shorb. I am the ADA title 2 ADA coordinator here at the city and I am here to give you all an update uh on progress on the ADA self-evaluation and transition plan and to request um to have phase one uh transition plan move forward to a city council meeting. I'm just going to share my screen here. Oh yikes. Okay. Can you all see that? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Perfect. Great. So, I just usually uh like to begin my presentations with a road map. I'm Carlin Shorb. I'm going to this evening speak uh very briefly about the ADA requirements uh that both the the legal mandates of the ADA title 2 and some other laws that impact uh accessibility at the city of Aurora. and then I'm going to give you all an update on our self-evaluation and transition plan. Um I believe we've uh spoken about this uh previously I think around the same time last year. Um but the Americans with Disabilities Act was um a law that was passed in 1991. Um and title two of that act requires states, local governments, special districts, and all contractors of these entities providing a public service for the entity to meet certain fundamental accessibility requirements. There's other disability access mandates here in the uh the state of Colorado. Um one includes the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act. Um it adopts uh the language of the Americans with Disabilities Act um and makes it law here in Colorado. There's also, you guys may have heard about this a lot, um, a a mandate called House Bill 21-1110, which um, uh, mandates uh, states and local government the state and local governments uh, to make digital spaces accessible. Um, there's something called the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which was the predecessor of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and which, um, applies if cities are receiving federal funding. um it applies basically uh the same mandates as the ADA and most of the same mandates of the ADA um to those grant-f funded programs and then um we are in some ways impacted by the federal fair housing act um and the architectural barriers act um those are all u mandates that impact the city of Aurora. Um accessibility mandates um under various laws affect all areas of the city. They can impact the architectural compliance of buildings, our parks, the public right ofway. They impact our events, programs, and activities that we provide to the public. They can impact our online billing and payment systems. Uh they impact documents, multimedia agendas. Um for example, the agenda tonight uh for the city council meeting. Um and they also uh impact uh the availability availability um of auxiliary aids that um cities uh have to provide to the public. Um for example, American Sign Language or auditory uh devices um for folks. So under the ADA there's uh six basic requirements. >> Sorry to interrupt. Are you trying to get Are you wanting to advance these slides? >> Yes, I am. I I'm advancing them on my end. My apologies. >> Yeah, they're not advancing. At least at least for me. Sorry to interrupt. >> Okay. Nope. >> You're not You're not in show mode. >> Okay, let me get out. Get out of here. I'm very sorry. I thought I was moving it right along. Um Okay, stop sharing. My apologies. Okay. Okay. Can you all see that slide that says six basic >> requirements? Okay. I'm going to just go ahead and leave it. I'm not going to do the slideshow version. I'm just going to leave it here so that I can click through and you all can see it. Um, can you see when I'm advancing now? >> Yeah. >> Okay, perfect. I'll leave it that way. I had it on slideshow and for some reason it didn't read. Uh so there are six basic uh title 2 requirements uh under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The first requirement is to point an ADA coordinator. The second requirement is to post public notice of non-discrimination citywide. The third is to set up a grievance procedure for the public um to it, you know, uh submit a complaint basically if they feel they've been discriminated against under the uh ADA. Um the fourth requirement is um it's and I'm quoting reasonably modify rules, policies, and procedures to avoid discriminating against people with disabilities. The fifth requirement is to provide reasonable modifications to allow individuals with disabilities to access structures, programs, services, and activities on equitable footing as their non-disabled counterparts. And then requirement six is this requirement to undertake a self-evaluation to examine how programs, services and activities are delivered to individuals with disabilities and to develop a transition plan um to address deficits uh in equitable services to community members with disabilities. That last requirement I usually like to say it's ADA language for you know we have to undertake a study and then have a plan a kind of a strategic plan on how we want to address um ADA deficits um long term. Um, so the city's doing uh really great um meeting these mandates. We actually have um more than four ADA coordinators. I'm the title 2 ADA coordinator. I'm I'm working on all the um compliance having to do with all the programs that we offer to the public. Uh we have Will Flowers who works in the communications and marketing department who's working on all those digital accessibility requirements that I me mentioned in one of those uh laws. Uh we have a whole employee relations team that takes uh title one accommodation requests from employees and we have um actually the parks and recreation department uh for a long time has had uh an adaptive and inclusive recreation team that actually takes accommodation requests from the public in addition to providing adaptive recreation programming. So um so there are actually a whole host of ADA coordinators here at the city. Um, other progress to date on the first five requirements. Um, we have the fulltime ADA coordinator. We've, um, since I was hired, um, we've done a number of policy updates and we've, um, published our notice, um, widely across the city. It's all over our website. It, it's all over, um, public facilities, posted in public facilities, rec centers, libraries, that sort of thing. Um we've um created a new way to take grievances um and been um created a policy to let folks know what our um specific accommodation request policy is. Um and we've created online forms and we've made it more easily accessible to the public. So we've have it in a place where they can find it um and uh know that we have a credence and accommodation request process. Uh we've been focusing a lot on training and learning tools for employees to understand the ADA mandates. um and to then implement those. Um you know, the communications department has really done a really great job of website improvements. Um and um we are nearing the end of phase one um of that self-evaluation and transition plan, which is mostly what I'd like to speak to you all about this evening. Um so the title two requirements requirement six is that we have to do this audit or study and then we have to come up with a a transition plan which is the plan of what we want to do when we've um identified um the deficits or or whatever it is um that we're not meeting. Phase one was focused on the public rightway. Um we have completed all of the self-evaluation component and we've worked with our consultants to come up with a a plan um for phase one. Uh so uh we are basically here you can see the arrow uh we're actually moving on also into this uh plan for emergency ser services and emergency preparedness. We have a kickoff meeting tomorrow morning actually to talk to different departments about this um emergency management piece uh of our um self-evaluation. So what did we do during phase one that was focused on the public rightway? Um we had departmental discovery. Um we distributed a number of internal and external surveys. Um and the biggest part of this is that we had um uh done a whole bunch of field data collection. Um that field data collection looked at curb ramps, sidewalks and push buttons in the city to see um how ADA compliant they were, if they were ADA compliant and or how ADA compliant they were. So key findings from that self-evaluation of our public rights of way were that 92% of pedestrian push buttons in the city of Aurora are non-compliant in some way under those ADA standards. 95.9% of curb ramps in the city um were non-compliant under the current standards and 77.91% of sidewalks were non-compliant under current ADA standards. So, um, and one of the things that I wanted to point out, those those may look like, uh, large numbers. They are large numbers. Um, but this is something that's been common with cities. Um, it's not unique to our city. Um, the the ADA, the federal government didn't give cities and municipalities a lot of guidance for a very long time on what being compliant with curb wraps uh, curb ramps and sidewalks looked like. um for a good probably 22 years. Um so then there's a lot of cities and um and state governments who are then playing catch-up um to improve their infrastructure to meet um those standards for actual ADA curb ramp compliance and that sort of thing. So while these look um like very large numbers um I did want to point that out that it's not something that's unique to our city to see these kind of numbers when we actually undertake all the field data that we're um that we've undertaken. Um, another thing to keep in mind, um, as well, uh, is that the ADA is very, very focused on having a plan. Um, and so as long as we are moving forward with the evaluation and having a plan moving forward for addressing any type of ADA um, challenges in our infrastructure or our services, programs, and activities, and we can show that we're moving forward and we're having progress. Um I I understand it's a large number, but I think um we'll be really um in a good place um because we'll have a a plan moving forward. So what did that plan look like? So like I said, we have all the field data and then we worked with our consultants to come up with a strategic plan or a plan um to address the um the deficits in the public right of way. Um they came up we came up with 11 main uh plans um to address uh the public right ofway ADA deficits. Um and the first one was um to undertake a comprehensive review of city policies um related to the right of way and determine whether to fully or partially adopt the Department of Justice's PROG standards. So um when it comes to the public right of way um there is a a minimum standard. It's called the ADA 2010 guidelines. And then there's something that's um that's actually very clear guidance that's considered best practices and that's called the PROWAG public right ofway accessibility guidelines. So um the public uh the city engineer um together with our consultants will be um um looking at more um specifically the policies related to the public right ofway in the city. And then we'll be um doing an assessment to decide whether to adopt like many um states and municipalities and the you know the transportation administration have already done um whether to adopt the pro-ag in full or in part or certain components of it. Um but a lot of that will have to be determined um what the best fit is for our city um and take things like um you know policy how it impacts other programs and services in the right of way that sort of thing. So, but there will be um more analysis done on whether to fully adopt the public right ofway guidelines. They're called guidelines. Um we have also recommended uh that the city adopt and implement a policy directing that as streets are resurfaced as part of Aurora's annual maintenance program, any adjacent non-compliant curb ramps are reconstructed. So, that's that's the biggie. Um we are now replacing curb ramps as streets are maintained and resurfaced. Um so new curb ramps when they're non-compliant or if they're non-compliant will be replaced as the city is going through its regular maintenance um program um to address uh street resurfacing. Um transition plan goal three is adopt and implement a policy on preferred locations and accommodation. So this is um I think really important. There does need to be some sort of prioritization. So this is actually transition plan goal three and also transition plan goal four. Um they're they're they're the public works department um will be working on a system to prioritize where if if we do the replacements just ADA replacements not as part of the maintenance program but when if and when we do replacements on top of the annual maintenance program um where the best places are to um to make those improvements because obviously you can't do everything at once. So um we want to have very clear criteria on what's going to be a priority to um to replace um for any type of with the capital improvements and things like that. So, so um there will be a prioritization um criteria created um and that's that was strongly recommended by the consultants. Um and the rest is is more technical. Um we are going to integrate ADA compliance data into in our existing geospatial database. So, um they're called layers and so layer a layer an ADA layer will be added onto what the public works and other pro um like parks department use um and it'll be added on where they'll be very clearly able to see where improvements have been made, where they need to be done, that sort of thing. So, um so that that's all, you know, having to do with the technology and the geospatial mapping. Um uh so a lot of this has to So the transition plan goal six was to integrate ADA compliance into the city's asset management framework. You all know we're going through a buildup Aurora uh process. Um and um this transition plan f um focuses really on just integrating um the the ADA uh improvements into that uh capital planning campaign. um adopt a polic uh transition plan goal eight is to adopt a policy and procedure to guide staff in communication with persons with disabilities. This this is a lot of what my office will be working on um is creating f focusing on the policy and p like big picture policies and procedures when they come to those six requirements of the ADA. Um and one um is uh working on an effective alternative communication policy. Another one is for example updating the language access plan. Another one is um having a a citywide service animal policy that's published um or yeah created and published. So those those are kind of um again focused on policy. Um we're also creating a an internal um working group to better um communicate ADA updates and mandates and compliance issues internally with different departments. So each department will have a representative that will come and work um together to to it's um more also a communication and training um issue internally to get the um educate back to the departments. Um when it comes to these ADA uh compliance mandates um we're going to update the plan on a yearly basis. Um and then once ADA compliance is integrated into the GIS database, the GIS database will also be updated on a on a an annual basis. So, um that's a lot of technical stuff that even I um probably our engineers and our software people know a lot a lot better and in more detail than I do. So, our progress to date on the transition plan. Uh again, we're completing phase one or we've already completed phase one of the self-evaluation. We now have the draft transition plan that was shared with you all in those backup materials. Um this transition plan must be approved by council and published for comment before it can be finalized. So that is my request for you all this evening is that we um be able to move it forward to council and have it published um just so that we are able to have that public comment um and then we can move forward with finalizing just that phase one of the transition plan. We've also hired our consultants for phases two through four of the self-evaluation and transition plan. And so we're just moving right ahead into phase two um through four of the um the self-evaluation and transition planning process. Um, our next steps, um, again, I already talked about, uh, getting that draft transition plan up for public comment. Um, we're going to be conducting phases two to four, uh, two through four of the audits. Um, and also develop comprehensive transition plans for those phases. Um, again, that's focused, uh, phase two on emergency services, and operations. Phase three will be focused on buildings, facilities, and other structures. And then phase four will be focused on parks, recreation, and open space. um then we have to publish each of those um and put them in front of comment before they can be finalized. Um we're also going to continue to review internal policies and practices as I mentioned and um a big part of my office's focus is on staff training and resource development. We've done another a large number of things internally that focus on um educating and training staff on uh these com um accessibility mandates. Um so we've created an internal SharePoint site that has all sorts of learning materials. We do quarterly trainings. Now um we have um integrated an ADA training into the new employee onboarding process. So there are a number of things that we're doing internally that focus mostly on education and training um because that's an important part of this. So um so thank you so much. That actually completes my presentation. So I would love to open this up to questions. Yeah. >> Uh questions. Uh council member Bergen. >> Yeah, thank you for the presentation. A lot of work um that has to be done. My question is did this stemmed from the the House Bill 21 1110, right? >> Most >> no that is digital accessibility. So there's um that's for digital accessibility and the city um has a a a plan already published for digital accessibility and that sort of came together and needed to be final. There was a deadline in July related to that. Um so this is separate. This is this is strictly like meeting compliance in the area of that 1991 Americans with Disabilities Act. Um it's it's really looking at all of our buildings um our facilities. Sorry. Yeah. Sorry. I'm just trying to figure out why. Was this a mandate to us to do this or we chose like we're not in compliance? Like are we saying we're not in compliance or is this a federal ADA mandate? >> So in 1991 when the um when the law was passed, so this is takes a little bit of history. >> Yep. >> The city did undertake an initial self-evaluation. um it it was very uh rudimentary because like I said there wasn't a lot of guidance given and so um the city in 2021 actually started having the discussion about updating that self-evaluation and transition plan to ensure because what what had happened is we had a self-evaluation and transition plan but then it was like open and shut and it was never it's supposed to be a living document. you're supposed to be um monitoring it as time goes by to ensure that you're meeting all those goals. And that was something that was that did not happen. >> I guess maybe I'm not stating my question correctly. Are because a lot of these you're saying, "Oh, the push buttons are non-compliant. The curb ramps are non-compliant." When I I mean, I'm I was in the temporary staffing industry, so I understand the 1991 ADA act, >> but who is making these? Obviously the you know the push buttons they didn't come up with that in 1991. So who is making these recommendations on stand new standards new requirements because we're we're having to fund them and we don't have any like who's are we getting federal grants for this? So um the the standards are not new but what happens is um so the law is passed and then the US Department of Justice publishes um um regulations and it's in in the regulations and then what they do is they create these they work with something that was also created as part of that law which is called the US access board and that's a group of of of folks who are specialists in the con in the industry in this case the construction industry and they came up with standard standards like very you know standards um um what should be um you know to make a community like to meet standards so they they're the ones who actually publish the technical requirements um but but like I said this is that what the ADA mandates is that we have this plan we don't have to make the improvements tomorrow I mean for the public rightway um it would be more you know 200 250ear plan um so really in order um we have to just change our policy to make sure that we're saying when we repave a road, we should be replacing that curb ramp. It shouldn't say how many roads the city is deciding to repave every year. That's going to be dependent on what our budget is. Does that make >> Yeah, I was just trying to get who was making the actual standards, you know, these federal government. >> It's the federal government, Council Member Bergen. It's it's the under the ADA under the law. It's the feds. It's not the state. >> Okay. So there and I guess every city every uh everyone is is bound by those particular standards. >> I guess it seems very top down like there's is is there not any wiggle room in the standards based on uniqueness of maybe a city or you know infrastructure? >> Okay. >> Well I Okay. Yeah. I don't know if so so I can and maybe I can have our technical folks talk about this a little more. Um the so if we're talking about for example in phase three buildings and facilities, right? So the the international building code actually codifies accessibility um requirements in buildings, right? And those are actually, believe it or not, the ADA is a floor. those building standards actually go above and beyond the minimum of what the ADA requires. Um for public rights of way um there are uh like I said there's this minimum standard which are called the 2010 standards and then there's this public right of way um accessibility guidelines um they haven't been adopted yet. A lot of folks would say that that's best practice and it's actually better because it does help depart uh public works departments uh know what to what to do whereas um >> you know there's just a whole bunch of case law and sort of different areas here or there you know not clear guidance. Yeah. >> So ba basically I mean we're not having to do everything at once. Um, so as it makes sense as you're like redoing things that you would want to make those improvements as you move along. And so um >> I mean obviously we're we're facing um a critical capital project need in in the what billion dollars or something. So I just would I guess I was trying to see how fast we have to move on on all these changes and and requirements. >> I think Oh yeah. So, and just to follow up on that, we we um we need to I've gotten a message. We need to be done by five. >> I'm sorry. The public comment listening session and we've got two other items on the agenda. So, Council Member Kums and then C I'm sorry, Council Member Lawson and then Council Member Kums. >> Mayor, um Carlin, thank you for the presentation. I think you addressed one of my questions. I guess the one question I have is looking at these phases here. Um, this is for you guys evaluated the whole city, correct? Minus the growth that's going to happen in in the future. Is that correct for that question? >> Yes. >> Okay. The my second question, I think you answered it already. You're already implementing things in things that we're already building. So, ADA will already be part of that, correct? >> Yes. Okay. >> Yeah. goal is to integrate this into existing, you know. >> Okay. >> Then what about um I'm looking at what about the things that do need to probably in older parts of the city, which I think is important. And how are you I didn't see not one slide on here about really allocating what the funding could anticipate to be. I know you're still working on this, but what's the allocations? um if you're looking at it maybe per ward or per um you know maybe a hot spot um I didn't see anything like that. Is that going to be something that's going to be considered or you guys are going in a different direction? >> No. Yeah. So so two of the the the recommendations were to prioritize um and create criteria for prioritization um so that there are certain high high need areas that would need to be addressed. usually um uh other places for example would look at you know uh high traffic areas where there's hight traffic areas schools hospitals you know it's it's it's nothing you haven't heard for other programs either um but then also we've we've been heavily involved in also the buildup Aurora campaign so the goal would be to just try to integrate um ADA into the capital you know process as it's as it's moving forward as well. >> Okay. But mayor, I just want just one quick. I'm looking at the older parts of city. You keep I know buildup Aurora is something that's it's being worked on, but I'm talking about older parts of the city. I'm not just talking about Ward one. I'm talking about Ward two, believe W three. There's even some parts that in the ward six, you know, that are older than some of the newer ones. So, I'm looking at how you guys are implementing those because those are issues that really, really do need to be addressed, especially by to sites and things like that. and in heavily driven areas >> within the city. So >> yeah, I would say they're not not there yet. Um that was one of the recommendations is that um yes, the departments work on creating criteria. Yep. Council Combmes, >> just really quickly, um I'm assuming that the ongoing phases also include um looking at standards of maintenance, including things like snow and ice removal in relation to accessibility. Yes, that's something that would Yeah, that's um not in the large big picture plan, but it's something that my department is looking at based on public feedback that we're receiving and have received um and which uh areas to prioritize and address based on the public feedback that we're getting about that. >> Okay. Um >> thank you. Thank you. >> So um what's the action item here? Or is it to move uh uh item number 3C forward? >> Yes, please. >> Very well. Is there any objection to moving item number 3C forward? >> Seeing none, item number 3C will move forward. Item number 3B, interpreter fee amendment, uh, city code 50-36, uh, Candace Atkinson, director, court administration. >> Good evening, council. Um, we are coming back. Uh we brought this forward a few meetings back and we were asked to do a little bit additional um research on it. Both Judge Day and I did reach out and did research. I was unable to find another municipal court that did charge interpreter fees. There was only one that said they do sometimes for trials. Um so we went back um and um changed it back or went forward with what we originally proposed that meets with the chief justice's directive that it's just FTA at jury trials. So we're back to just changing the amount from $35 to 90. And Judge Day is also on here as well if you have any questions for him. >> Yeah. um questions or comments? Uh Judge J, do you have anything for us on this? >> No, other than just to supplement what Candace just said, we went back and looked at the chief justice directive, the most current version. We also went back and looked at the most current version of the state statute as it relates to assessment of costs for prosecution. And we uh came to the conclusion that the only thing that would be authorized by law in in accordance with the chief justice directive would be the assessment of the interpreter fee uh for jury trials if referenced in the state statute depositions but we don't do depositions in municipal court. >> Very well. Uh further questions or comments? Um seeing none, is there any objection? >> Um council member Mario. Yeah, I I was just going to um add my uh I guess continued uh opposition to charging uh an interpreter fee. You know, I think that having interpretation is part of the cost of business, especially in a city with, you know, over a 100 languages. I think Aurora public schools is 160 languages. um and passing that down onto the individual that wouldn't be shared um by everyone um is concerning to me. So I'm just concerned that this is going to just be an impact to our immigrant communities, folks who speak another language. Um yeah, that's all. >> Other questions or comments? Ma'am, >> I'm sorry. Who's this? >> Um, Kums. >> Council Kums. >> Yeah. So, I think for me it's just whether the intent is simply cost recovery. Ultimately, the impact becomes discriminatory. Um, and so for that reason, I will not be supporting. >> Our other questions or comments? >> Uh, is there any objection to moving 3C forward? I think council member Kums is and council member Council member Medina. Um >> okay. Uh seeing the uh majority are in support. Uh council member I mean u item number 3C will move forward. Uh item number 3D will move for forward. I'm sorry I stand corrected. Item number 5A acknowledgement of the completion and support for the older adults needs assessment. Um council member Lawson. >> Yeah. Thank you mayor. I'm just going to give like a little comment on this. Um I want to first thank my colleagues for um back when we had the ARPA dollars, we gave $170,000 to basically do the study with the Epley Institute. And at that time, we didn't know what it was going to be. Um I think that this has uh been a significant two-year um process. We've had the older adults really be involved in this. um our staff really did a lot of work on this as well. I've read through this. I think that um a lot of the things that have been captured um in the um in this particular um needs assessment is documented. I hope that this is just something that wasn't just done out of just saying, "Okay, we're going to put it up on a shelf." I hope it is utilized um if council go you know approves this resolution to really be used in our planning our housing our transportation um looking at you know the things that our older adults needs because everyone is going to age and I think our city needs to ensure that we're making and planning according accordingly. So um that's all I have to say on this. This was a lot of work. I thank staff as well. I'll let Nicole go ahead and say a few words as well, but um that's I just wanted to comment on that and hope that the council will approve this resolution to move forward. >> Um please proceed. Uh Dev, >> thank you. Uh my name is Nicole Ankeny and I'm the manager of planning, design, and construction for the parks, recreation, and open space department. We were the lead on this project because we uh facilitate um the work with the Aurora Commission for Older Adults. As you will see through this brief presentation, the impacts to older adults um really hit every area and aspect of the city, not just pros. So the purpose and focus of this study was to carry out a community-driven comprehensive assessment supported by data collection and analysis of the needs of older adults in this uh scenario age 60 and older within Aurora. We the assessment addresses the three domains of livability as you can see here. Aging in place which includes the cost of living and housing, transportation, community resources. It also incorporates healthy living which includes mental health and isolation, physical health, caregiver support and medical care. And then the third domain of livability is community connection. So those include the areas of social participation, communication and information sharing as well as safety. And I did want to note that the Aurora Commission for Older Adults provided significant feedback throughout the entire project. they actually helped my team in putting together the scope of work before we put out the request for proposals. So the first phase incorporated what was termed the environmental scan. Essentially what this was was a review of demographics on housing, health and services as well and was again organized by those three domains of livability. I'm not going to go through and read every bullet point here, but I did want to share a couple of key findings with the economic characteristics. One of the things that that was interesting was that we do have 35% of older adults that are in the labor force. I also wanted to mention that with the demographics and environmental scan overall, a lot of our analysis looked at comparables to the city and county of Denver as well as statewide. So you will see a number of references in here that will reference whether we were higher and lower or what the impact was to Denver and state averages. With housing characteristics, it's important to note that 63% of our renters as well as 30% of our homeowners are considered costburdened. That means they are paying over 30% of their income on housing. within transportation access. We do have 62% that live within a 10-minute walk of a bus stop. That doesn't mean any everybody has the ability to get to those bus stops, which we will see later on um in the recommendations. With regards to community resources and services, of course, those are primarily located in the western and southern portions of Aurora just because it follows our development patterns. And we find the same with health and living facilities as well. Phase 2 consisted of a significant amount of community engagement. You see here there were 18 key informant interviews, nine focus groups. We actually had um a tremendous response on the community survey. We had over 550 responses which is really fantastic. We did four information sharing sessions and we also did some targeted outreach. The Aurora Commission for Older Adults really assisted us with some of the recommendations on key groups and also assisted significantly with promoting our survey. Here's a couple of the findings from that phase 2 effort. There are many challenges of aging in place as you can imagine. Housing affordability, uh, downsizing is actually quite difficult. Um, maintenance and mobility. Um I just wanted to note that challenges are not always physical are not only physical. There are also of course a number of transportation gaps in our system. Some of those are related to the regional transportation district service gaps. Some of the things that we also heard was concern about safety as well as long lists for ser long wait lists for services and there's also eligibility restrictions on some of the paratransit services. With regards to the findings on mental, physical and caregiver health, you can see the numbers here. We're sitting around 30% overall on um those that are feeling um depression type symptoms, feeling that they don't belong or feeling isolated. When it comes to physical health, there are over 30% that reported falling recently. Also 26 that are physically burdened by the act of caregiving. We also um received a lot of feedback that there's high demand but limited resources for caregiver support. A lot of those resources were diminished um post during COVID and postcoid. When it comes to medical care, there is a desire for better access, affordability as well as assistance with navigating the various systems with community connections and safety concerns. You can see that um some lack digital literacy. Also, they um report that they don't always know where and how to find services. So again, you can see a lot of the numbers here ranging from 39 to 66%. Um, some are not feeling valued or are lacking access uh to skill building for work and volunteering opportunities. And you know, twothirds of our population that were participated in the feedback um really do feel at risk of fraud. Many of the requests that we saw were for a combination of translation uh recreation programs or expansion of recreation programs that are existing today, additional protected walkways as well as more police presence. As you can imagine, with some of these types of assessments, a lot of the research that you do um illustrates some of the challenges that you're facing. So, we did want to point out many of the key community assets that we do have in the feedback. Um, the Aurora um center for active adults was really highly valued as a wellutilized resource. We also received a lot of feedback that classes such as silver sneakers were quite popular and there were requests for additional services there. parks, trails, and recreation centers were very popular amongst the older adult population as well, and we received a lot of praise uh for our city diversity. So, I just want to um express within this final assessment, the final recommendations, uh there were over there were 108 recommendations total. They were organized across those three core domains again aging in place, healthy living and community connections. We evaluated these on different tiers. The attempt there with the tiers one through three was to assign a level of time, effort and resources. Um something important we wanted to mention is that these recommendations are not all or nothing. Many of these could be phased in with time and although the higher recommendations may require more time and effort, they may also produce more s significant outcomes. This is just an illustration showing by each section we had overarching recommendations. There's a total of three and we'll share those on the next slide. And you can see aging in place, food access, and it kind of goes down the line. So you can get a sense of the total number of recommendations per tier. And you can see here, this is across many different departments throughout the city. And overall, this is really about community needs. So some of these recommendations may be fantastic recommendations, but may or may not be suited to be led by the city of Aurora. They may be um suited for another organization. So the overarching recommendations and next steps, there were three overarching recommendations. You can see here in this tier one, explore adopting age friendly practices and joining age friendly networks that will align with the city's short and long-term strategic planning, providing access to tools and resources. The second one in tier two, which is then a little bit additional effort using survey data, consider participating in the Colorado's multis- sector plan on aging, which is the MPA, to ensure the voices of older Aurora residents are represented. Tier three, explore the feasibility of creating an officer on aging position or potentially an office on aging to coordinate efforts with other departments. So, as far as the next steps, of course, the first would be the city council resolution before you this evening. And then the next step is really to incorporate incorporate some of these recommendations into the citywide strategic plan as well as the individual department strategic plans. We're in the process of sharing the overall assessment citywide and we were as we are asking each department to determine if any recommendations could be achieved with existing resources. The example that you see here on the lower left um that's an example that is being undertaken by uh both pros and planning and business services. It's a microtransit um pilot project and we are in the process of evaluating uh proposals at this time for the pros department. When we did our analysis, for example, we felt that we could take on eight of the 108 recommendations within our current staffing and um budget resources. Uh one of the things that I did want to mention as well, we really do want to continue our coordination and collaboration efforts with the Aurora Commission for Older Adults, and that's going to be really critical, I think, to the success of implementing these recommendations. So I would ask at this time if there are questions for staff and then to state the question before you. Does city council wish to support the approval of the resolution acknowledging and supporting the completion of the older adult needs assessment moving the item to the next regular council meeting. Thank you. >> Questions or comments? Let's see. Uh council member Medina. >> Thank you sir. Yeah, the question is just yeah I think I can help to connect a lot of resources especially in that area where the active adult center is in particular ward one w three kind of in that area we have a lot of connections with the work I do with be well health and wellness initiative which works with a lot of that those areas that you're focused on so I'll try to get reach out and get some information to those lo to those locations about resources uh vaccines transit a variety of different things and ways for them to advocate where again it's not creating any money coming out of city but uh there's resources that we're connected to that might be able to help them and help them to get involved in as well. >> Uh further questions or comments and we're uh we're pretty we don't have a lot of time left here. Further questions or comments? Uh then is there any objection to moving the resolution forward? Uh seeing none, the resolution will move forward. Thank you very much. And uh let's see, we um are transitioning then to the public comment, public listening comment at 6:00 >> and everybody that'll be on the council meeting uh l >> so everybody knows again reminder. >> Okay, thanks everybody. Appreciate it. I'll see you in a little bit. [Music] Hey, hey, hey.