do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] at the right of the meeting of the york city council for monday october 25th 2021 is called the order uh with the clerk please give the announcement of the public calling line roger you're needed to do the announcement thank you so much good evening the city council welcomes feedback from residents at council meetings on both matters appearing on the agenda and during public invited to be heard for those watching on channel 8 please call 855-695-3475 when connected press star three to get in the queue and don't forget to press the star you will hear a prompt confirming you are in line to speak to an operator and then be able to continue listening to the meeting until the operator comes on to take down your name and the agenda item you wish to speak on residents who would like to speak republic invited to be heard or on a specific agenda item and have not already been screened please press star 3 to sign up before the item is called by the clerk if you've already spoken to the operator you do not need to press star 3 again callers who do not sign up for public invited to be heard prior to it being called by the clerk may still press star 3 to speak on another agenda items at the end of the meeting as a reminder we will not allow comments on any items on the agenda during public invited to be heard um this meeting is called order with a clerk please call the roll mayor we do have spanish interpretation about i'm sorry i'm sir el consejo municipal de la ciudad da la bienvenida al opinion compared uh with uh the media's call to order with the clerk please call the roll mayor kaufman mayor pro-tem bergen here council member berzins here council member coombs president councilmember gardner yeah councilmember gruber councilmember hiltz yeah councilmember lawson here councilmember marcano listen councilmember mario president there's a quorum now please vote your heads for the invocation o lord our god and our father we come to you and we ask that you would look upon this particular gathering tonight to keep us safe and guide us in our decisions so bless our bless our city with honorable citizens industry sound education and good government unite our community together even though we come from different backgrounds we pray that there be justice and peace in our city give the city council and citizens the wisdom direction and sensitivity to the business and proceedings before us tonight hear us therefore as we commit this meeting to the help of the community amen please join me in the pledge of allegiance please allegiance to the flag of the united states and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice uh executive session uh update uh an executive session uh we discussed uh security issues incentive negotiations um approval of the minutes uh for july 9 2021 uh motion motion to approve uh council member gardener is removed by council mobile gardener second by thursday uh councilman reverses to approve the minutes for july 29 2021 uh discussion seeing no discussion with the club please call the role on the adoption of the minutes for july 29th 2021. mayor kaufman yes councilmember marcano yes councilmember hiltz yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember lawson yes mayor pro tim bergen yes councilmember mario yes councilmember gardner yes council member persons yes councilmember gruber yes the motion passes to approve their july 29th 2021 minutes um the motion to adopt a minute for august 9th 2021 here um uh motion to approve the minutes from august 9th it's removed by uh man for tim uh bargain seconded by river uh councilman mcgregor to approve the minutes for august 9 2021. uh discussion i see no discussion with the clint please call the role on the adoption of the minutes for august 9th 2021 yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember berzins yes councilmember gardner yes you also remember mario yes mayor pro tim bergen yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember hiltz yes councilmember mercano the motion passes to approve the august 9th 2021 minutes there are no proclamations or ceremonies uh publicly invited to be heard mayor we do have one indiv vigil for public invited to be heard very well hello hello council we have patricia on the line patricia your time starts now good evening mr mayor city council members and staff my name is patricia duhalt assistant director of pickens technical college and i am an aurora resident i live at 17244 east kansas drive this morning at 7 50 a.m myself and many pickens students witnessed a terrible car crash a student was turning on an unprotected green onto the campus while two lanes were backed up and stopped a third unblocked lane had a vehicle going the 50-mile speed limit and hit a turning vehicle the turning vehicle went up the curb onto a sidewalk that often has students on it and hit a parked vehicle in our parking lot two weeks ago we witnessed a similar accident in which the student's car flipped this is the fourth collision in two months in the exact same location nine cars totaled within two months this has gotten to be such a frequent occurrence that we recognize when one of the responding aurora police officers got a new hairstyle since we see her so often as the police as the pickens representative we are asking that you consider correctly making buckley from 2nd street to 6th street a school zone within this short stretch is the turn lanes going across three lanes of opposing traffic to enter crossroads school mosley elementary school william smith high school hickens technical college and kids tech day care center on behalf of all the students and staff at the aurora public schools that turn on buckley thank you mr mayor council members and staff for your consideration on this important safety issue thank you very much and your issue will be addressed um adoption of the agenda if you vote in the affirmative to adopt the agenda you will grant the appellate on the um item number of 9a mountain view community homes presentation the right to be able to present their position for 15 minutes with that um emotions emotion on the adoption of the agenda so go ahead and please counsel americans so we're required to approve the agenda here and with that item to hear that item at all or i'm just confused like you have it you have a choice the choices you can amend out um you can state that um if you vote in the negative uh then you but you know what let me that was how staff briefed me on it let me make it simple uh let's just do this um if somebody would make a motion to allow the appellant to be able to give a presentation and i will take that as an amendment and then we'll vote on the adoption of 9a councilmember mcconnell thank you sir uh just a question aren't they allowed to pres uh you know speak during probably yeah during 16 a i believe is the motion that we're hearing here anyway staff sorry uh under the council rules the applicant gets 15 minutes automatically that's part of your council rules the opposition the appellant in this case wants to also present normally they get three minutes a piece they wanted to do a powerpoint presentation so that is 15 minutes and it would all be lumped together this motion is just simply working around your three-minute council rule to let them present their powerpoint okay thank you the clarification helps uh obviously would love to see them give the ability to give their side and to be able to give a presentation um motion to motion to allow the appellant to give a presentation mayor dave gruber moved to approve uh allowing the appellate to give her a presentation the rule by councilmember gruber seconded by seconded by mayor trump mayor protem bergen to allow the appellant uh to give a presentation um since this is an amendment i consider this as amendment to the adoption of the agenda um i believe um city attorney this does require a separate vote does it not or do i just see if there's any objection i you can see if there's an objection and that worked okay is there any objection uh to uh allowing the appellant felon to give a presentation seeing none then the question before us is the adoption of the agenda promotion mayor dave removed to approve the agenda that's removed by council member grover second by mcconnell councilman to adopt the agenda discussion uh seeing no uh further discussion uh the uh with the clerk please call the role on the adoption of the agenda mayor kaufman yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember marielle yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember marcano yes councilmember persians yes councilman mcgruber yes councilmember lawson yes mayor pro-tem bergen yes council member hills yes the motion passes to approve the agenda very well uh content calendar uh items 10a through 10 g uh motion mayor um motion to prove uh consent items 10a through 10g let's by uh mayor pretend bergen seconded by persons second of mine councilman reverses uh consent calendar items 10a through 10g uh discussion seeing no discussion then when the clerk please call the role in the adoption of the consent calendar mayor kaufman yes councilmember berzins yes councilmember coombs yes america temp bergen yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember hiltz yes councilmember mario yes councilmember marcano yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember gardner yes the motion passes to approve the consent calendar uh the tommy's now uh 646 council will stand in recess uh until 7 51 to give staff an opportunity to do another announcement for the call-in line okay did you meet 6 51 i'm sorry 6 51. thank you we've who would like to speak on a resolution or ordinance and have not already been screened please press star 3 before the item is called by the clerk for those watching on channel 8 please call 855-695-3475 and be connected to an operator after pressing star 3. council is taking a short break to allow for any additional speakers to sign up again please be patient and stay on the line until the operator can take down your information as long as you heard the prompt after pressing star 3 and can either hear music hold or the meeting in progress you are in line to speak to an operator [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] do do now back in session um with clerk please read the title to item number eleven a item 11a is resolution 2021 115 a resolution of the city council of the city of aurora colorado approving the 2022 employee pay table and classifications a brief presentation my staff good evening mayor mayor pro tem and council members i'm ryan lance director of human resources so annually in collaboration with the annual budget process human resources prepares an updated pay table and submits the pay table with the resolution for council's approval so including in your council packet for your review is a resolution approving the pay table and then of course the updated pay table there are just a few notes a new equal pay for equal work law took effect january 1st of 2021 for the state of colorado this was mandating various requirements for all employers the city is compliant with the new law additionally the city completed a full market analysis of all full-time positions and with the pay table it does include career service employees civil service department directors appointees part-time variable hour and seasonal positions it is worth noting for elective positions we are following the same process for reviewing data from the bureau of labor statistics evaluating the cost of living increases or decreases depending on the results and those are in the process of being updated and finalized so those are one of the few items that we still need to update within the paid table um see if there's any questions that you have for me uh motion mary dave gruber uh councilmember move to approve 11a removed by councilman gruber is segmented by gardner second saying by councilmember gardner to prove i'm number 11a um questions of staff for discussion just have one question never done um were there any positions that were brand new that that were not something you could compare to in the marketplace um we didn't evaluate any brand new positions but there were some positions that uh previously were the market the data was really outdated so we did have to kind of blend positions uh work with this department directors and really find a better match for those positions we're pretty confident that all positions have a good match further discussion no questions this down seeing none the question before says the adoption of item number 11a with the clerk please call the roll council member hilts yes councilmember marcano yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember cruz yes mayor pro-tem bergen yes councilmember berzins yes councilmember marielle yes councilmember lawson yes the motion passes to approve resolution 2021-115 item 11b is resolution 2021-116 a resolution of the city council of the city of aurora colorado renaming the aurora water building at the southeast area maintenance facility the daniel p my excel water operations facility motion i'm sorry brief presentation with your staff thank you mayor council marshall brown general manager of aurora water the proposal before you this evening is to name the water operations facilities at the southeast area maintenance yard after dan mikesell who served this city for 40 years in various capacities including his most recent few years as the director of water operations prior to that he was the director of water [Music] dan also was involved in helping us accomplish a number of significant things over that 40-year tenure including significant involvement with our prairie water system the wise project he served on the metro wastewater reclamation board including astantico's chair for a number of years he was integral to our safety programs automated metering and potentially most relevant had a lot to do with our space planning and and creating efficiencies in our operations group which identified the need for this new water operations facility we're proposing be named after him with that uh happy to take any questions uh motion there all right councilwoman thank you sir move to approve 11b moved by councilmember marcano seconded by mayor uh councilman combs yes second uh um councilmember mcconnell was taken by councilmember combs to approve item number 11b discussion by saying no uh discussion uh the question before says the adoption of item number 11b with the clerk please call the roll council member lawson yes councilmember mario yes councilmember berzins yes mayor pertin bergen yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember marcano yes councilmember hiltz yes the motion passes to approve resolution 20 21 116. glory now please read the title to item number 11c item 11c is resolution 2021 117 a resolution by the city council of the city of aurora colorado acknowledging the dedication collaboration and support of the aurora armed forces treatment core community partners a brief discussion a brief presentation my staff mr mayor decided if i could mary just want to make sure that judge day is not on if he's not then i'll i'll speak um the armed forces treatment court was established by judge day and and our municipal court uh it's unusual in the fact that it's a municipal court as opposed to a district court just reports are funded at the federal level municipal courts are not the people recognized on this resolution are those people that are involved in creating the court and those people that are supporting the court through volunteer hours uh the court is very important to the veteran community and the work these people have done gratis to the city uh deserves to be recognized i'd also like to um recognize council member hills and council member previous council member johnston uh for working with this and bringing this idea through the council process further discussion uh seeing none um the question before is the adoption of item number 11c what the clerk please call the rule councilmember gruber yes yes councilmember hiltz yes um i'm sorry mayor did we get a motion in a second i don't think we did mayor moved to oh i'm sorry uh uh motion move to approve uh 11 seat submitted by council member grover second on by else uh seconded by council member hills to approve number 11c uh is there any further discussion i've seen that when clerk please call the roll on the adoption of item number 11c councilmember gruber yes councilmember health still yes councilmember marcano yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember mario yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember persians yes it may have protein bergen yes the motion passes to approve resolution 2021-717 now please read the title number 11 d item 11 d is resolution 2021 118 a resolution of the city council of the city of aurora colorado approving the intergovernmental agreement by and between e-470 public highway authority and city of reward regarding design of the gartrell road interchange expansion improvements and funding therefore brief presentation by sam good evening this is brett van waar engineering supervisor within public works the proposed idea for the guard trail road interchange expansion improvements is a new iga between the city of aurora and the e-470 public highway authority to define project development responsibilities and allow for city staff to oversee the planning and design for the future construction of the bridge widening and ramp intersection improvements with the e-470 authority as a stakeholder and reviewer of the project the project will include planning and design of a bridge to support a full five-lane roadway section with pedestrian and bike improvements and ramp intersection improvements the this proposed iga with e-470 allows for the city to manage the design of this project and establishes e-470 review authority and communication protocols motion to approve 11d it's removed by uh may pretend morgan seconded by second by councilman to approve i'm number 11 the uh discussion oh mayor uh for tim i guess just wanted to state how important this is um for the residents of southeast aurora at that inner interchange which is very dangerous also the funding would be through surya so this is just the design and construction agreement to be overseen by city staff further discussion uh sitting down the question before us is the adoption of item number 11d or the clerk please call the roll councilmember marcano yes yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember hiltz yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember berzins yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember crumbs yes councilmember mario yes mayor protein bergen yes the motion passes to approve resolution 2021 118. well clerk now please read the title to item number 11e item 11e is resolution 2021 119 a resolution of the city council of the city of aurora colorado approving the intergovernmental agreement between the city of aurora and the e-470 public highway authority regarding temporary traffic signals at gartrell road and e-470 a great presentation by sam good evening everyone my name is carly campozzano and i'm the traffic manager at the city presenting on this item this is another new iga between the city and e-470 this is also regarding the gartrell interchange with e-470 but it's different but related to the previous item so this item is a funding agreement between the city and e-470 to design and construct temporary traffic signals at the interchange of gartrell in e-470 prior to the interchange expansion project so these intersections are currently stop controlled but the warrants are met for signalization so the city has been working with e-470 and with council member bergen to identify funding to signalize these intersections as quickly as possible in the interim before the bridge is designed and constructed so this funding agreement is for design and construction and the city will be doing the design using internal forces and to expedite this project we've actually already started on that portion of it since it is internal staff and doesn't involve uh funds and e-470 will be funding the actual construction of the temporary signals which is estimated to be about 1.2 million but could be slightly less depending on how the bids come in so with that i'll answer any questions you have a motion mayor uh councilmember uh mayor pretend bergen thank you mayor motion to approve um 11e has been moved by mayor pretend bargain second bye second second by uh councilmember i can prove it number 11 discussion uh seeing no further discussion with the clerk please call the role on the adoption of item number 11e mayor pro-tem bergen yes councilmember mario yes councilmember crumbs yes councilmember gruber yes yes councilmember perezins yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember hiltz yes councilmember gardner yes that's the member marcano yes the motion passes to approve resolution 20 21 119. now please read the title to item number 11 item 11f is resolution 2021 120 a resolution of the city council of the city of aurora colorado approving the intergovernmental agreement between the city of aurora and the colorado department of transportation cdot regarding the pass-through funding from the united states department of transportation better utilizing infrastructure to leverage development grant for the i-70 and piccadilly project free presentation by staff yes thank you this is brett van wort again with public works engineering supervisor uh this item for consideration is for the i-70 piccadilly interchange project iga to obtain the pass-through funding uh federal funding for the build grant from the united states department of transportation through colorado department of transportation cdot and is a standard arrangement for federal transportation funds to go to local agencies in addition to the 25 million of federal funds and the mandatory 20 local agency match that cdot is required to track the iga also includes 5 million in safety funds from the state for correction of a safety issue with the geometry of i-70 immediately adjacent to the project the project is progressing with a design build delivery model to meet the obligation deadline of fully obligated funds by june of 2022 as part of that the city shortlisted three teams with issuance of final rfp to those teams will be in march of 2022 [Music] all right excuse me discussion and questions to stamp saying number one please call the role in the adoption of item number eleven f council member mario yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember coombs yes councilman gruber yes councilmember marcano yes councilmember berzins yes councilmember hiltz yes councilmember lawson yes mayor pro-tem bergen yes the motion passes to approve resolution 2021 120. uh with a click down please read the title to item number 11g item 11g is resolution 2021 121 a resolution of the city council of the city of aurora colorado approving the grand agreement between the city of aurora and the united states department of transportation regarding the build better utilizing infrastructure to leverage development grant program for the i-70 piccadilly interchange project a brief presentation by staff yes good evening again uh this item again is for the i-70 piccadilly interchange project this is an iga with the united states department of transportation so while the previously discussed iga was with cdot and was for the funding reimbursement aspect of the project the terms of this arrangement this agreement establishes scope and allows the city to administer the project and establishes the terms of the build grant program specifically this iga identifies target dates from my for major milestones and establishes metrics for the measurement of the project's impact that will be measured before initiation and after project completion thank you sir move to approve 11g moved uh by councilman mcconnell second by steph camp uh second by uh councillor lawson uh to approve item number 11g uh discussion questions let's see none with clerk please call up call the role on the adoption of item number 11g councilmember berzins yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember mercano yes councilmember modio yes councilmember gardner yes mayor pro-tem bergen yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember hiltz yes the motion passes to approve resolution 20 21 121 when closely now please read the title of item number eleven eight item 11 h is resolution 2021 122 a resolution of the city council of aurora colorado to approve the colorado opioid settlement memorandum of understanding a brief presentation my staff good evening mayor and council this is kendall kocha with the city manager's office this uh memorandum of understanding is to agree to receive funding directly from the opioid settlements currently there are over 20 settlements and as of now we we are unclear of the dollar amounts for a settlement and when the settlements may actually um be resolved in in that way we've received the funds directly through the settlements to the city uh motion there uh councilman mcconnell thank you sir move to approve 11h we'll move by councilman mcconnell second in 11 h discussion missing no discussion with the clerk please call the role on the adoption of item number 11 h council member helps yes council member coombs yes mayor protembergen yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember mario yes councilmember marcano yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember gruber yes yes and council member berzins yes the motion passes to approve resolution 20 21 122. clerk please read the title item number 11 i item 11 eyes resolution 2021 123 a resolution of the city council of the city of colorado approving the cell and city purchase of land and water rights in the transfer of said water rights motion i'm sorry brief presentation by staff good evening for the record my name is alexandra davis deputy director water resources of aurora water this uh proposal tonight is an acquisition of john's ranch land and water rights associated with the land the water riots are up to 300 acre feet per year from the petri and length ditch off of terrielle creek up in south park colorado and it's 1400 acres of historically irrigated land the location of the land is in park county adjacent to the sportsman's ranch the full cost is about 10.33 million dollars with 6.6 million dollars for the water rights and about 3.73 million dollars for the land the purchase price is based on previous water rates and the land price is based on real estate appraisals the sellers are retaining a 40-acre home site a non-exclusive access easement to the home site and rights to oil and gas resources but not to any other mineral resources the other mineral resources are coming with the land purchase these are significant water rights for the city in park county and will provide a clean mountain water supply that will run into our system by gravity without the need for further infrastructure the land provides a potential for future projects in the sense of potential mitigation for wild horse and other storage development projects and the ability to build storage for the return flows that will be necessary once we change those water rights for use in the city upon council's approval closing closing is expected to occur on or before december 15th and we will have to file a water court application within one year of the closing and i'll take any questions motion motion mary dave gruber because i were moved [Music] uh discussion or questions to staff seeing none of the clear please call the role on the adoption of item number 11i councilmember coombs yes councilmember hills yes yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember law said yes mayor pro-tem bergen councilmember gardner yes councilmember burzins yes council member mercano yes councilmember mario yes the motion passes to approve resolution 2021-123 time is now 715 council will stand in recess until uh 7 20 giving staff an opportunity to make an announcement for the call online the council is now recent residents who would like to speak on an ordinance that have not already been screened please press star 3 before the item is called by the clerk for those watching on channel 8 please call 855-695-3475 to be connected and then press star 3. council is taking a short five-minute break to allow for any additional speakers to sign up again please be patient and stay on the line until the operator can take down your information as long as you heard the prompt after pressing star 3 and can still hear either music hold or the meeting in progress you are in line to speak to an operator [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] any of the aurora's regular meeting of the royal city council is now back in session uh clerk now please read the title to item number 14a item 14a is ordinance 2021-48 an ordinance of general improvement district 1 2007 creek racket club adopting an operating budget establishing the tax levy and appropriating sums of money to defray expenses and liabilities for the fiscal year beginning january 1st 2022 and ending december 31st 2022 brief as a presentation by staff good evening mayor ramire pro tem and members of city council my name is teresa sedmak and i will introduce items 14a through 14f and related ordinances on tonight's agenda each of these six ordinances were previously presented to both the m f committee and participants in the budget workshop september 25th the ordinances relate to individual general improvement districts or gids which were formed throughout the city to finance specific infrastructure improvements which may include road improvements sanitary sewer improvements masonry walls and fences and the like the establishment of the gids and the associated infrastructure improvements were approved by a majority of the property owners within the gid's boundaries and were financed through the sale of bonds with principal and interest being repaid through annual property taxes leveled within that district the ordinances before you tonight create the budget authority and establish the middle levees to be assessed to property owners in order to satisfy debt service in the upcoming budget year thank you for your consideration and i'm happy to answer any questions you may have in this regard motion promotion mayor dave gruber by council over moved to approve 14a it's been removed by councilmember gruber's second one by bergen uh mayor franken to approve item number 14a discussion let's say no further discussion with a clerk please call the role on the adoption of item number 14a council member marcano yes councilmember hiltz yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember coombs yes thank you councilmember lawson yes mayor pro-tem bergen yes councilmember mario yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember burzins yes and councilmember gruber yes the motion passes to approve ordinance 2021-48 we'll include now please read the title tag number 14b item 14 b is ordinance 20 21 49 an ordinance of general improvement district 1 2008 piara park adopting an operating budget establishing the tax levy and appropriating sums of money to decree expenses and liabilities for the fiscal year beginning january 1st 2022 and ending december 2022 um brief presentation by staff i'm sorry mayor i presented a summary of all of these six very well ordinances um second by um uh councilmember lawson to provide a number 14b uh discussion let's say no further discussion uh with the clerk please um call the roll on the adoption of iron 14b councilmember gruber yes yes councilmember berzins yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember mario yes mayor pro-tem bergen councilmember lawson yes councilmember crumbs yes councilmember hiltz yes yes councilmember marcano yes the motion passes to approve ordinance 20 21 49. with going now please uh read the title of item number 14c item 14c is ordinance 20 21.50 an ordinance of general improvement district 3 2008 meadow hills country club adopting an operating budget establishing the tax levy and appropriating sums of money to defer expenses and liabilities for the fiscal year beginning january 1st 2022 and ending december 31st 2022 motion here um councilmember mcconnell thank you sir move to approve 14c good move by councilman mcconnell second bye perkins uh yeah any councilmember persons uh to approve item number 14c discussion yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember hiltz yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember marcano yes council member mario councilmember mario yes councilmember berzins yes council member grouper yes and councilmember coombs yes the motion passes to approve ordinance 20 21 50. we'll join now please read the title to item number 14 d 14 d and it's 20 21 51 an ordinance of peer point seven general improvements district 2 2009 adopting an operating budget establishing the tax levy and appropriating sums of money to defer expenses and liabilities for the fiscal fiscal year beginning january 1st 2022 and ending december 31st 2022 um motion i'm sorry motion uh councilwoman comes i have mayor move to approve it's been moved by uh councilman kuhn second goodbye councilmember gruber to approve item number 14d discussion uh seeing no discussion with clerk please call the role on the adoption of item number 14d councilmember lawson yes councilmember hiltz yes councilmember marcano councilmember coombs yes councilmember gardner yes mayor pro-tem bergen yes i'm sorry councilmember gruber yes councilmember mario yes council member persons yes the motion passes to prove ordinance 20 21 51. well it's going now police are the title number 14e item 14e is ordinance one fifty two in order to participate in general improvement district number two two thousand eleven adopting an operating budget establishing the tax levy and appropriating sums of money to defray expenses and liabilities for the fiscal year beginning january 1st 2022 and ending december 31st 2022 promotion mayor berson uh council reversals thank you move to approve 14e moved by councilmember burzen's uh second one by councilmember rio to uh approve item number 14e uh discussion uh seeing no further discussion with the clerk's cola the role on the adoption of item number 14e councilmember gruber yes yes councilmember marcano councilmember gardner yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember berzins yes mayor putzenbergen yes councilmember health yes and council member mario yes the motion passes to approve ordinance 2021-52 uh well the clerk now please read the title i number 14f item 14f is ordinance 2021-53 an ordinance of cobblewood general improvement district 1 2016 kabul general improvement district adopting an operating budget establishing the tax levy and appropriating sums of money to defray expenses and liabilities for the fiscal year beginning january 1st 2022 and ending december 31st 2022. motion mayor persons by council reversals thank you live to approve uh 14 f uh it's removed by councilman reverse in the second one by second uh councilmember lawson to approve item number 14 f uh discussion see no discussion with the clerk please call the role and the adoption of item number 14 s council member hilts yes councilmember gruber yes yes mayor pro-tem bergen yes councilmember berzins yes councilmember mario yes councilmember marcano yes councilmember gardner yes council member crims yes councilmember lawson yes the motion passes to approve ordinance 20 21 53. now please do the title time number 14g item 14g is ordinance 2021-54 an ordinance at the city of aurora colorado adopting and operating in capital improvements project budget for the fiscal year beginning january 1st 2022 and ending december 31st 2022 um commotion hey dave gruber move to approve 14g it's been moved by councilmember seconded by our government second uh second by council member gardner to approve under 14g discussions say notice consumer please call the roll the adoption line number 14g council member marcano yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember grouper yes councilmember burzens yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember mario yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember hiltz yes ama or protein bergen yes they have motion process to approve ordinance 20 21 54. we'll go now please read the title 14-h item 14-h is ordinance 20-21-55 an ordinance establishing the tax levy on all taxable property within the corporate limits of the city of aurora colorado for the tax collection year beginning january 1st 2022 and ending december 31st 2022. great presentation by staff absolutely uh this is greg hayes budget officer uh what you just approved with 14g and 14h being the tax levying 14i being the budget appropriations ordinances are the three basic ordinances that uh are part of the the approval of the 2022 budget it's a culmination of a lot of work between council and staff and and citizens as well including two two uh public invited to be heard specifically about the 2022 budget information at the winter workshop the spring workshop one-on-one meetings in july the citizens advisory budget committee workshop also in july and then in september the presentation and and then most of all was the uh saturday september 25th budget workshop that you all uh enjoyed with us and these are the culmination of this this uh this tax levy sets our uh sets our property tax levy for uh for 2022. uh motion uh councilmember mcconnell thank you enough to approve 14h moved by councilman mcconnell perkins second by mayor pro tem uh bargain to approval number 14 h discussion mayor um and i just uh for the public on the tax levy we're um approving the mill levy of 8.605 um assessed on each home and i i think a lot of times um i hear from constituents that they think that the city gets all the property taxes so i just wanted to say it's it's 8.605 mills um further discussion i say now the question before is the adoption of item number 14 h uh with claire please call the roll council member coombs yes councilmember berzins yes councilmember gardner yes council member yes mayor pro-tem bergen yes councilman mcgruber yes councilmember hiltz yes councilmember lawson yes and councilmember mercano yes the motion passes to approve ordinance 20 21 55. well now please read the title item number 14j item 14j is ordinance 20 2157 an ordinance amending certain sections of chapter 138 of the city code of the city of aurora colorado relating to services for the provision of water uh brief presentation by staff mayor i'm sorry are we on 14i or 14j oh i'm sorry um we are on 14i uh we clearly read the title of item number 14i item 14 i is ordinance 20 21 56 an ordinance of the city of aurora colorado appropriating sums of money to defray expenses and liabilities for the fiscal year beginning january 1st 2022 and ending december 31 2022 motion mary dave grouper that's where we were moved to approve 14i it's been uh moved by councilmember gruber seconded by mercano councilmember mcconnell to approve our number 14i discussion see no discussion i'm sorry uh councilmember mario uh does 14 i say 2020 budget ordinance does is it supposed to say 2022 yeah you're correct it should say 2022. very good not change this is for that correct try the description yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember gardner yes council member mercano yes councilmember cruz yes councilmember mario yes councilman rick gruber yes yes councilmember hiltz yes and councilmember berzins yes the motion passes to approve ordinance 2021-56 courtney now please read the child's item number 14 item 14j is ordnance 2021-57 and ordnance amending certain sections of chapter 138 of the city code of the city of aurora colorado relating to services for the provision of water a brief presentation myself good evening this is joanne giddings i'm the deputy director for water annually with the budget process we look at our revenues and propose rate and fee increases as needed we the last time we increased was in 2019 we had planned on proposed increases in 2021 but with the uncertain uncertainty of the pandemic we chose to hold off on that so for 2022 we do have increases that we are proposing these increases have been reviewed by our citizens water advisory committee and our water policy committee so what we are proposing for rate increases for 2022 is three and a half percent average for water three and a half percent for storm water and a four percent pursuer and then our development fees which are paid by developers to connect to our system we are proposing increases there as well in our water we have a 10.6 increase and in our sewer is 6.3 percent and we are not proposing an increase in stormwater for 2022. motion motion uh councilman ricardo thank you sir we have to approve 14j it's removed by councilman mcconnell second by mayor uh uh councilmember homes second uh to provide number 14j uh discussion i see no discussion with a clerk that's called the rule on the adoption of number 14 excuse me 14 j council member berzins now councilmember coombs yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember hill yes mayor pro-tem bergen yes council member marcano yes defenseman yes and council member gardner yes the motion passes to approve ordnance 20 21 57 code now please read the sounds out of number 15 a item 15 a is finalizing ordinance 20 2140 an ordinance of the city council of the city of aurora colorado amending the 2019 comprehensive plan to change the place nightmare from emerging neighborhoods for the area bounded by lisbon street to the west 65th avenue to the south piccadilly road to the east and e-470 to the north high point at dia comprehensive plan amendment a brief presentation my staff good evening mayor and city council this is brandon camerota uh planning manager uh as mentioned this is the second reading of this comp plan amendment the first reading was voted for approval in addition to the entitlement i i would add that the underlying landowner is supportive of this change and we did not receive any comment uh relating to surrounding landowners on this proposal thank you promotion mayor dave gruber because we're moved to approve 15a it's been moved by councilmember gruber's second invite second second by councilman combs to approve i remember a 15a um discussion mayor mayor jones bergen uh yes uh thank you um so we're changing the place type um from the emerging neighborhood to urban district and when you look on the map um it's next to a major arterial road and doesn't look like there's any um neighborhoods adjacent to it correct um through you uh brandon camerota um as it relates to you know the urban district uh this parcel is surrounded by other designations of urban districts so it does make that uh you know kind of a consistent designation in that regard thank you you're welcome further discussion we'll see you now with the clip please call the role and the adoption of number 15a councilmember mario yes councilmember persians yes mayor pro tim bergen yes councilmember marcano yes councilmember cruz yes councilmember gruber yes yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember gardner yes and council member health yes the motion passes to pre-board it's 20 21 40. including now please read the title number 15 b item 15 b is finalizing ordinance 202141 an ordinance of the city council of the city of aurora colorado amending section 13438 of the city code pertaining to impoundment of vehicles a brief presentation my staff good evening i'm colleen dealing with the aurora police department um as a reminder we're just asking for information regarding which circumstances the aurora police department will consider for fee reimbursement i.e exceptional circumstances to include illegal toes or a favorable judgment by an aurora municipal court impound hearing judge we're also requesting the requirement of the written notice from within 24 hours from the time of impoundment be changed to the close of business the following day from the date of impound any questions uh motion mayor uh uh motion to approve 15b to remove my uh protem bergen uh uh second entered discussions and questions of staff what's saying none with the clerk please call the role on the adoption of item number 15b councilmember health yes it's hard to vote on the ipad and and talk at the same time when you're first but yes thank you councilmember gardner yes councilmember lawson yes councilman mcgruber yes councilmember crumbs yes councilmember marcano yes mayor pro-tem bergen yes remember burzens yes and councilmember mario yes the motion passes to approve ordinance 2021-41 the um the time is now 7 44. uh we will stand uh the council will stand recess until at 7 50 to give staff another opportunity to make an announcement for the call in line uh council stands in adjournment i mean in recess residents who would like to speak on an ordinance and have not already been screened please press star 3 before the item is called by the clerk for those watching on channel 8 please call 855-695-3475 to be connected and then press star 3. council is taking a short five-minute break to allow for any additional speakers to sign up again please be patient down the line until the operator can take down your information as long as you heard the prompt after pressing star 3 and can still hear either music hold or the meeting in progress you are in line to speak to an operator [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the regular meeting of the aurora city council is called back to order um uh staff could give a brief statement about the process and order uh of the items before us and mayor and city council you all hear me yes okay thank you so dear mayor and city council tonight's next two agenda items are related but they're separate and distinct items each having their own public hearing approval criteria criterion boating rules the first item is an approval of a rezone from low density residential to medium density residential in considering this item you must use the criteria on page 591 of your backup the summarized criteria is as follows the rezo must be consistent with the conference of plan and with other policies and plans of the city council that the impact of the rezone is compatible with the surrounding area and that the rezone will not create significant dislocation of the residents the second item is an appeal of the september 22nd planning and zoning commission's approval of a site plan the site plan approval is reliant upon the zoning approval discussed prior in this action the council must base his decision on the site plan criteria in the udo and the prior record of the decision made the council may uphold modify or overturn the planning commission's decision site plan criteria is found on page 706 707 of your backup the site plan approval criteria summarized is whether or not the site plan complies with udo city regulation existing infrastructure public improvements is compatible with the surrounding area it mitigates adverse impacts to the highest degree practicable the rezone is an ordinance under the charter the mayor may only vote on this item in order to make or break a tie the appeal is a motion to approve modify or deny the site plan the mayor may vote on this item are there any other questions questions of staff are saying none well um please um read the title title number 16a item 16a is um public hearing and introduction of ordinance for ordinance 2021-59 to amend the city of aurora zoning map by changing 2.06 acres of land within lot 4 block 3 of havana heights subdivision situated in the northwest one quarter of section 26 township 4 south range 67 west of the principal meridian city aurora colorado varapo state of colorado film r1 low density single family district r2 medium density district mountain view community home zoning map amendment public hearing is now open as um a question of uh city attorney does uh the pelican go first so on this one mayor the there you go yes so the applicant goes first um now the applicant goes first well normally staff gives a presentation for the app then the applicant will follow up with their presentation so yes steph uh staff normally goes first on the reason so the staff will go first on this okay uh um staff staff presentation right the public hearing is open it's now open and staff presentation please proceeding all right let me open up a presentation for you hopefully everybody's seeing my screen but good evening mayor and city council members tonight for your review is agenda item 16a the mountain view community home zoning map amendment the applicant habitat for humanity of medford denver is requesting approval of a zoning map amendment from r1 low density single family district to r2 medium density district the planning and zoning commission action on this item was to recommend approval to city council at the public hearing on september 22nd 2021 with a vote of six to one this vicinity map shows the local context of the property which is a two acre parcel at the southeast corner of south joliet street and east evans avenue the zoning map shows the surrounding zoning designations in the proposed r2 medium density district on the sub on the subject site highlighted in darker yellow the predominant zoning for the surrounding neighborhood is our one low density single family district 13 of budding property owners and 22 registered neighborhood organizations were notified of this application there were many comments received during and before the development review and the applicant held several meetings to discuss the proposal with interested parties the first meeting was held in november 2019 and the required first review neighborhood meeting was held in on july 7 2021. the comments and concerns received relating to the zoning map amendment specifically include increased density concerns and compatibility with the surrounding neighborhood the aurora place's comprehensive plan identifies this property as an established neighborhood place type as shown on this map the established neighborhood place type is characterized by predominantly residential areas with a variety of unit types including single-family detached two-family and attached glowings higher density residential development is typically located at near the edge of this place type as a transition district the aurora places plan also identifies housing for all as a key policy for development within the city which recommends supporting development that will increase high quality housing options all price points and decreasing barriers to home ownership as detailed in the planning commission report in your backup the finding is that the zoning map amendment is consistent with the aurora places plan the city of aurora housing strategy identifies housing trends in aurora which include issues with affordability and home ownership and meeting the growth demand policy recommendations within this strategy include preservation of long-term affordability of existing and future housing stock and expanding the inventory of housing options throughout aurora the housing strategy recommends supporting mixed income neighborhoods that offer a variety of housing options to households and breaking barriers to home ownership especially for low-income households this proposed zoning map amendment is consistent with these policies practices and recommendations identified within the housing strategy the planning and zoning commission recommendation to city council was to approve the zoning map amendment from r1 low density single family district to our two medium density district because the proposal complies with the criteria in section 146-5.4.1.2.3 for the following reasons the zoningmap amendment is requested to address housing trend changes in the surrounding area and city-wide the city of aurora housing plan identifies these trends and recommends supporting mixed income neighborhoods and breaking barriers to home ownership the application is consistent with the spirit and intent of the aurora places plan the proposed application is consistent with the spirit and intent of the purpose statement of the r2 medium density district the applicant has demonstrated that the proposed size scale height density and multimodal traffic impacts of this proposal are compatible with the surrounding development and this application will not dislocate tenants or occupants of the property and these are the approval criteria that dan money mentioned at the beginning for your reference and that concludes my presentations and i'm available to the city attorney's office procedurally the applicant goes next correct procedurally be the applicant the public to be heard and then the applicant can do a rebuttal to the republic to be heard so um that way the applicant fits both the first uh chance and then the final chance because it's their project and then in 16b that's when the appellate the appeal the billing takes place correct okay to the applicant presentation by the applicant evening um i could okay give me one second to share my screen okay all right good evening mayor kaufman and members of city council i'm corey whitaker and i lead our real estate team at habitat for humanity of metro denver thank you for the opportunity to present our application for the rezoning and site plan of 20 affordable for sale homes in the mountain view united church's vacant property i am going to speak to you about the need for affordable home ownership the opportunity to address this need and how we arrived at a solution for this there is an immediate need for more affordable home ownership homes in aurora this need can be understood by looking at two numbers the number on the left for the u.s census bureau the median household income in aurora and 2019 was sixty five thousand one hundred dollars on the right her redfin's housing market trends the median sale price in aurora in august was four hundred and fifty thousand one hundred dollars before that median priced home in aurora a household would need an income of around 100 000 a 35 000 gap this need is further highlighted in aurora's recent housing strategy study published december 21st of 2020 the figure at the top shows that rents and renters incomes actually tracked at the same pace not a bad news the figure at the bottom shows that while renters incomes increased in that time home values increased at an over twofold pace as is called out in the report more than 75 percent of the city's current renters need homes priced at less than 300 000 to attain ownership the need is for homes under 300 000 the market reality is that homes are selling in the 400s and 500s the plan not only identifies the need but it calls for action it lays out a goal that 15 percent of all new ownership units are affordable to households earning 80 percent of the area median income which is what we are proposing in our development it also calls for city support for the development of for-sale housing including missing middle housing such as the duplexes proposed in our site plan this need for affordable housing is also a pillar of the aurora places comp plan the plan established housing for all as a core principle it calls for an increase in all types of housing at all price levels throughout the city it specifically establishes a goal to understand the needs for affordable housing and create new housing options there's an immediate need for more affordable home ownership homes in aurora it is evident in the market and it is prioritized in the city's plans transition to opportunity mountain view united church has been a part of the aurora community since the 1960s in 2018 the church began a visioning process for how they could use the vacant land adjacent to them to serve the community at large recognizing the urgent and immense need for affordable home ownership they put out an rfp for developers and selected habitat for humanity of metro denver to execute on that vision with that partnership formalized habitat and mountain view began coming up with a solution or a plan for how to address this need at habitat we approach all our new developments with this guiding statement we strive to create a development that balances affordability which is key to habitation livability we build all of it or we want to create successful and functional homes for future residents and neighborhood context we build all over the metro area and it is always a priority of ours to understand and respond to the surrounding neighborhood now this does not mean that building the same thing is what is existing but rather incorporating and responding to the characteristics of what comprises that context so to do this we held four community meetings throughout the planning and design process the first two meetings were prior to designing the site at these meetings we gathered comments and feedback that helped guide our design the last two meetings were a chance for us to present the plan and show how we incorporated what we heard i would like to take the last of our time to walk through how we arrived at the design and how community input helps shape it property is located one block east of havana and two blocks north of iliff at the intersection of east evans ave and south joliet street as dan mentioned it is within the established neighborhood place type per the aurora places comp plan based on the plan the primary uses of this place type include single-family detached single-family attached such as duplexes and multi-family residential along with schools parks religious institutions commercial and community gardens area surrounding this property is a perfect example of this diversity there are single-family home detached homes of varying density there are duplexes and multi-family religious institutions parks commercial and a community garden on the property now a common theme we heard from neighbors in those early meetings was that they wanted the development to blend with the rest of the neighborhood in looking at the neighborhood we observed that the cul-de-sac was a very prominent characteristic as one neighbor stated cul-de-sacs helped limit traffic and parking on the streets they create these micro communities within the larger community and so we felt if we wanted to blend with the rest of the neighborhood utilizing the cul-de-sac typology would be a great way to start so zooming into the site we laid a cul-de-sac on the lot and began planning it another common theme we heard from neighbors was a desire to keep r1 zoning one neighbor said that we should put similar homes if any with similar square footage and looking at the size of the homes around the property they vary from mostly two to three thousand square feet and a bit larger to the south we at habitat modest homes our modest 1200 to 1500 square foot homes as single-family homes would not match the size and scale of the surrounding area additionally single-family homes are more costly to build and if we stayed within the r1 zoning there would not be enough homes to offset the development costs for a project like this we would not be able to create a development that balances affordability livability and neighborhood context within the r1 zoning knowing that we could not stay with the current zoning we focused on how we could incorporate the characteristics of an existing neighborhood we heard things from neighbors like they like space between the houses space in the yard they do not want a high wall of buildings that people cannot see through such as town homes we took this feedback we laid out the site with 10 duplexes on individual lots each with their own parking spaces their own porches their own yards for a total of 20 homes centered around the closet pairing our modest homes together as duplexes is the perfect way to use that missing middle housing product referenced in the housing plan to achieve affordability while matching the size and the scale of the surrounding area we also heard feedback from neighbors on the height of any new homes they did not want homes that were super tall or three stories he took into consideration by responding to the heights of the homes adjacent to the property the existing homes along east evans ave are one story in height so we made the duplexes long east evans have one story in height the homes to the east and to the south are mostly two-story and we felt it appropriate to make the remainder of the homes two-story to match neighbors also expressed that they love to walk down the streets and that they feel safe walking through their community this was another reason we were drawn to the cul-de-sac typology it creates one predictable point of entry and exit to the development similar to what currently exists in that neighborhood additionally as part of the development we will be constructing over 500 feet of new 5-foot sidewalk and new ada accessible pedestrian ramps on each corner at the intersection of east evans ave and south joliet as you can see from these pictures these are areas where currently no herb gutter or sidewalk exists on the left along east evans ave we will be constructing curb gutter with an attached five-foot sidewalk to match what is existing along evans ave along south juliet street we will be constructing curb gutter with a detached 5-foot sidewalk this will improve the multimodal connections within the neighborhood and provide a safe off street route along south joliet street for residents to walk to havana heights park this is a section of street where currently no sidewalks exist on either side of the street parking was another topic we got feedback on such as enough parking but not on the street and parking in the back we began our design by ensuring that every home in the development had the code required two off-street parking spaces with the majority of these spaces accessed internally from the cul-de-sac upon hearing some concerns about parking and a desire for additional parking beyond the code minimum we modified our design to include additional off-street parking where feasible eight of the homes have three off-street parking spaces the remainder 12 homes have two off-street parking spaces in total there will be 48 off street parking spaces for these homes additionally with the improvements that we are making along east evans ave south juliet street and the cul-de-sac there will be the opportunity for an additional 27 on street parking spaces in total there will be 75 on and off street parking spaces within or directly adjacent to the development this works out to be almost four parking spaces per home lastly we heard some great feedback about the design of the homes themselves one neighbor expressed that it is important that each home has individuality and looks like its own home we created four house models for this development that incorporate different materials and respond to this desire for individuality now zooming back out to the neighborhood view we see that the development respects the character of the single-family detached homes directly adjacent to it with a density that is consistent with the surrounding area than the designated established neighborhood place type checks all the criteria boxes for major site plan approval as shown in this presentation the criteria for rezoning approval we have shown that this application is consistent with the cop plan other plans and the proposed zone district we have shown that this application is compatible with the size scale height density and multimodal traffic impacts to the surrounding development no tenants or occupants of the property will be displaced as a developer we look to city plans to guide us in this case aurora has made it clear that affordability and diversity of housing type is a need and a priority that should be addressed mountain view united church recognized this need and decided as a congregation to provide an opportunity to address it with their vacant property lastly we at habitat thoughtfully and intentionally came up with a solution that balanced affordability addressing this need that aurora has stated livability ensuring a design that has adequate parking has porches for neighbors to interact with each other yards for kids to play in and neighborhood context we've responded to the height scale and massing of adjacent properties we have incorporated characteristics of the neighborhood we will be improving the perimeter creating safer connections through the area this need this opportunity and this solution have all coalesced into a chance for 20 households to have a safe decent and affordable place to call home in aurora thank you i thank you is there any is there anyone who wishes to be heard from the public yes mayor we do have public on the line very well proceed please yes first up we have neb neb your time is starting right now go ahead yeah good evening mr mayor city council my name is uh nebu i am um chairman and co-founder of the ethiopian american development council i'm just here to ask you to support the habitats request for the r2 zoning and approve for their proposed site plan at mountain view united church i've also sent in a letter with more details so i'll just keep this brief um it's not a secret aurora needs more homes that our families friends and co-workers can afford and and myself as a community organizer who works very closely with working families and immigrants in aurora have witnessed uh firsthand the this struggle and the burden that escalating housing cost is having on families across our city and and why so many across our city are filling their is uncertain and and living in fear of displacement and even homelessness i am also deeply concerned about our essential workers who serve our government our teachers the men and women who keep aurora safe and healthy cannot afford to live in the very community they serve it feels like the american dream dream is slipping away the dream of owning a home and sleeping right before our eyes there are very few homes to buy on the market that are affordable for folks making 80 000 or less so i and i also believe that this partnership of local faith community and habitat for habitat for humanity i believe it's consistent with the city's housing plans which encourages innovative use of vacant undeveloped land to address our housing crisis so i support the need for affordable housing and i believe the city of aurora hosts it to those speaking of living here a viable way to remain in aurora this is what makes aurora a special place its inclusiveness its balance for economic diversity cultural diversity i think this is what has made aurora the all-american city and this is a legacy worth keeping so i thank you for the opportunity for to speak and i strongly urge you to support this project thank you for your service next up we have daniel daniel go ahead daniel are you there daniel thank you i'm serving as a proxy for matthew mengessa who couldn't be here tonight this letter is sent to the whole city council to have it available for anyone but i will read it here today to you habitat for humanity is an organization that has changed the lives of so many people including mine i grew up with a single mother who was a refugee from east africa she came to the us to provide me with the life she never had as you can imagine it was not an easy path my mother worked many jobs holding between three to five at any given time just to provide housing and food for the two of us growing up i only lived in apartments one thing my mom recognized early was a house can help create a pathway to more stability and upward economic mobility she made it the goal to become a homeowner and habitat for humanity made that possible now as an adult i am able to reflect on the impact this has had on our lives without habitat for humanity my mother may have not been able to purchase her first home they provide the tools and support needed to help marginalized communities gain access to home ownership looking back i see how much life changed for the better after we moved into our home we experienced more financial stability a safer neighborhood and an overall better quality of life after graduating college i saw how much equity my mother was able to build for herself through the home provided to her by habitat for humanity and i was inspired to become a homeowner myself four years ago at the age of 26 i was able to purchase my first home in aurora and begin to build equity for myself and my family i have since worked to inspire my friends and others to invest in buying homes unfortunately buying a home is no longer a reality for many people as housing prices continue to skyrocket that makes the work of habitat that much more important aurora will benefit from more members of our city gaining access to home ownership we must support creating pathways for people to access home ownership and begin to build equity habitat for humanity is such an important and powerful program they change the lives of families for generations please support habitat's request for r2 zoning and approval of their proposed site plan at the mountain view united church site thank you next up we have brian brian your time is starting now good evening mayor and city council members this is ryan island it's great to see you again i'm asking that you support the project of the habitat project at the mountain view community site i was sad when i heard this was happening we all know there's a portable housing shortage there no council understands it as i have said in many meetings with most of you as we tried to find answers just reminded that not even 100 years ago it was legal to put on the deed that you cannot sell your home to a person of color in 1930s the new deal provided government efforts that were primarily designed to provide housing to white middle class lower middle class families with intentional segregation in the 1940s there was state and federal housing policies that mandated segregation in the 1950s redlining practices here in denver metro area encouraged by the government fha were subsidized builders who were mass producing entire subdivisions for whites with the requirement that none of the homes could be sold to people with cutter the fed we saw a failure of congress to provide sufficient funding lowering standards for occupancy as well as government mismanagement at the local level the ag banned the construction of high-rise developments for families with children raising rates of vandalism and vacancy with concerns about countries acting uh centralized in poverty with these developments were declared and suitable for families in 1990s and 2000s the government launched the hope six programs and funds were devoted to demolishing poor quality housing projects and replacing them with lower density development often makes income construction but of course lack of funding made the myth and it didn't happen now we have limited housing and homeless and a homeless problem but the theme of trying to segregate still remains so today in 2021 we are um proposing to have exclusionary zoning which has been a way to enact policy that keeps affordable housing out of neighborhoods through the use of building code requirements which has been a way to enact or yes it is legal practice it is an elite it is a legal practice that has been used for decades to keep lower income people disproportionately racial minorities out of wealthy middle-class neighborhoods i ask you is this a practice our city wants to be known for i certainly hope not not in my backyard nindy-ism needs to stop people need a place to live habitat is trying to make this happen you should not deny this thank you for allowing me to speak and supporting habitat in this project next up we have wendy wendy your time is starting now good evening mayor and city council members my name is wendy witter i have worked as a teacher and school social worker for the past 30 years i'm passionate about my families and the children that i've worked with and that is why i support this project to provide affordable housing to our community in aurora i know firsthand the value that this gives to children in schools i wanted to speak today to the importance of permanent housing for children these homes will provide stable happiness for families with children we all know that stable housing reduces stress and lowers mobility rates for children in school we know that higher mobility rates lead to lower scores on reading and math tests and higher levels of anxiety and depression students with high mobility rates also do not often receive the services they need in schools because it takes time to know each child therefore many of these children flip through the crap strategies to support children's well-being and success in schools always includes the need for stable housing as a teacher i can speak firsthand about the lack of affordable housing i also did not have enough money for my first condo i had to have roommates to make ends meet i was able to afford my first condo eventually with a program from the state that helped me make a down payment this allowed me to purchase a condo in the neighborhood near the school that i worked in without that support i wouldn't have had enough money to get into the housing market teachers in aurora face the same circumstances of being unable to afford a home where they teach this project will provide much-needed affordable housing for workers including teachers and social workers earning up to the 80 percent ami teachers and social workers are the very fabric of our community i'm reaching out to you to ask for your support in approving the rezoning and site plan for this piece of underutilized land this is an amazing chance to provide affordable housing to 20 hard-working families in our community i wish it could be more please vote to allow the rezoning and approve the site plan which will benefit all of aurora thank you hello just as a reminder this is a very busy call tonight and again please be patient and stay on the line until an operator can take down your information as long as you heard the prompt after pressing star 3 and can still hear either the music hold or the meeting that's in progress you are in line to speak to an operator so let's just be patient thank you david you are next and your time is starting now good evening mayor kaufman and city council my name is david murimoto i live at 2060 south jamaica court that's immediately adjacent to the property that is being considered for redevelopment and the site plan put forth by habitat for humanity i want to point out that our community and i think i'm the first one who actually is speaking tonight who actually lives near this site and i've been here for 20 years this community is a very diverse community made up of all races creeds colors and ages we are really almost the exemplification of housing for all we have all sorts of folks who live here currently and have tried to attend all of the neighborhood meetings express our concerns our feedback and we really continue to have concerns about the health safety and welfare not just for the folks who continue to live here but for the people who are coming in we've heard a little bit about the parking issues that the site plan has come up with and i want to bring that up as when you put in almost three times the number of people and families on a plot of land and then expect that one parking space yes there is a parking space for for two of the homes but they're all on the same in the same uh parking lot it's going to be difficult for people to get through there we will experience problems with both parking and traffic in our area which does not serve the new residents or the older residents as well we've tried to present these uh objections and try to work with habitat but we really don't get much credence for what our participation has been i want to just say that we want to welcome our new neighbors no matter who they are to our community but the way that this particular plan is structured doesn't make sense i urge you to reconsider and not approve the rezoning and the site plan that habitat is is uh proposing i believe that we have um petitions that show that 90 of us have these same concerns in the neighborhood people from other parts of the city have other comments but the folks david you need to wrap up your comments if it's three minutes thank you very much thank you very much for your time thank you next step we have please cleve your time starts now thank you good evening mayor kaufman and city council members my name is cleve dixon i am an aurora resident in ward 4 and i ask that you support habitat's request for r2 zoning and approval of their proposed site plan at the mountain view community united church site i am a member of saint paul presbyterian church which is out uh southeast of there uh hampden in tower basically we run a food pantry and i volunteer there and weekly i speak with people who are seeking food assistance because they're retired living on social security or they're unemployed underemployed and are often living in in your grandchildren with their with their parents and many in the household largely because they can't afford adequate housing it's one of the main reasons they're you know whatever they're paying for for where they're living is so high that they uh have to seek food assistance um into other necessities so the addition of affordable housing is crucial to help alleviate this across our city and i think habitat for humanity has a great track record and i strongly encourage you to support and approve this rezoning and the cyclone thank you next up we have marcia marcia your time starts now go ahead name is marcia hall and i ask for your support habitats requests for r2 zoning and approval of their proposed site plan at the mountain to united church site i'm a former auroral public school educator this development will provide much needed affordable owner occupied housing for working families many of those are essential workers benefiting local neighborhood aurora and the greater metro area i support this project because this project helps aurora to meet its goal of 15 of all new ownership units be affordable to households earning 80 percent of the area medium income this project is an event an innovative way to use vacant undeveloped land to address aurora's housing crashes where one in three households are house cost housing cost burden essential workers in our community workforce like teachers my giant was police officers nurses first responders veterans construction workers are now struggling to afford to live in the city that they work in and call home i worked in an aurora school that opened with mainly single-family homes in our attendance area students were generally well behaved to be special and courteous and enthusiasts this area at the area changed and we serviced more students from apartments we all noticed the change in the students many had more behavior issues and trouble focusing affordable housing provides a stable environment for children contributing to improved economic outcomes in fact graduation rates among homeowners is impressive a recent survey showed that 98 of school-aged children living in habitat homes graduate from high school which is almost 20 percent higher than the state's graduation rate 40 percent of habitat owned homeowners actually go on to achieve additional education themselves after purchasing their home stable housing will improve the educational outcomes in these habitats homes i encourage you to vote for an approved project thank you tracy your time starts now go ahead good evening mayor kaufman and city council members i am reverend dr tracy l hughes lead minister of mountain views united church and resident of aurora colorado near the intersection of mississippi and stable thank you for the opportunity to speak in favor of the proposed habitat for occupied affordable housing build on mountain view united church land supporting the 2020 aurora city housing strategy the partnership with habitat for humanity is a natural extension of the ministry admission of mountain view united church we are excited and proud to join you aurora city council members and our mayor to build a beloved community in our city through loving our neighbors by offering our church land for this affordable housing build here is a way in which the habitat owner occupied affordable housing build fulfills the commitments of the 2020 aurora city housing strategy five-year plan the habitat build addresses the missing middle which the 2020 housing strategy identifies as households earning 80 percent of the area meeting income quoted from this strategy city council proposes using discounted or donated land with housing units that include multi-unit or cluster housing types that are typically compatible in scale with single-family homes in neighborhoods but offers slightly more unit density habitat's use of duplexes meets the needs of affordable housing of the missing middle which will provide home ownership options for first responders healthcare employees teachers and residents employed in the retail industry according to the 2020 strategy these three industries make up nearly half of all jobs in the city imagine the positive impact the habitat build will have in the city of aurora in our community these 20 owner occupied homes will benefit job growth because families that work in industries that make up nearly half the jobs offered in aurora need affordable housing to move to or to stay in our community families that have stable housing create stability in neighborhoods they love and in the communities they call home modern day united church is proud to join with the aurora city council and our mayor as you implement the 2020 aurora housing strategy together we can better the community we love on behalf of mountain view united church i ask that you lead from your heart love your neighbors as god loves you vote yes for the rezoning and site plan for the habitat mountain view united church affordable housing build thank [Music] you next up is paige paige your time starts now go ahead good evening mayor and city council members my name is paige anthony i live at 2190 south ironton court it is one of the cul-de-sac that abuts the church property i am certainly in support of affordable housing and appreciate habitat of humanity as an organization i am however opposed to changing the zoning from r1 to r2 because it is not compatible with the surrounding r1 neighborhood all of the abutting properties are zoned r1 i have lived in this neighborhood for 26 years my neighbors here have lived here even longer i don't understand why the opinion of one property owner to change the zoning to r2 appears to be outweighing the opinion of a hundred and fifty tax-paying property owners that live in the neighborhood that wish to keep the zoning r1 this includes all of the abutting property owners the increased density will create parking and traffic issues before it was mentioned about the parking that they're providing their the parking that's being provided are six single car garages and the rest of the parking will be tandem so parking behind one another and that is something that i don't think will work this is going to be creating all kinds of problems for the individuals and families who will be occupying these homes it's not fair to them to be able to not give them adequate parking and space for their families one of the planning commissioners gail jetschick suggested that we look at the single-family homes that fall into this category that they built at lowry we keep hearing that that can't be done but how did they do it in lowry i would like to know um i i think we would be as a neighborhood not i think i know we would be behind helping to build these homes if it paid r1 zoning our consideration you really need to consider the neighborhood and that's something that is not being taken into account here and and taking care of the families that we want to welcome into our neighborhood at havana heights thank you and i urge you to keep the zoning r one thank you next up we have amy amy your time starts now go ahead hello good evening mayor kaufman and city council members i'm rev amy betray hill and i ask that you support habitat's request for r2 zoning and approval of their proposed site plan at the mountain view united church location i'm a resident of aurora i live at 3729 south dayton way and i am a minister and community chaplain serving families and adults living with significant mental illness and intellectual and developmental differences in my work with aurora mental health center and developmental pathways i see the negative impact an ongoing shortage of certified nursing assistants and direct service professionals has on the quality of life for older adults and those living with disabilities in our city a lack of affordable housing and aurora contributes to this shortage and the shortage can condemn children with special needs adults living with significant mental health challenges or disabilities veterans and seniors with disabilities to living in nursing or group homes rather than living and aging with dignity with their families and in their homes some of the highly educated highly motivated social workers program administrators therapists and case managers i speak with every week would like to buy a home in the community where they work aurora but cannot afford to to do so longer commutes and the stress of high home prices and rental rates contribute to the high turnover an estimated 39 of essential direct service providers leave within one year and these are the individuals who care for the most vulnerable people in our community the city of aurora's 2020 housing plan aims for 15 to 20 of all new ownership units to be affordable to people making less than 80 percent of the average median income this group includes the certified nursing aides and direct service professionals we need more of in our city the partnership between mountain view united church and habitat for humanity metro denver offers a model for creating high quality accessible affordable homes in aurora ensuring essential workers can live in our city please approve habitat's requests for r2 zoning and the site plan at the mountain view united church site thank you for your attention muhammad you're up next go ahead and start muhammad are you there muhammad are you there okay if you are um still on the phone press start three again to get back in the queue i'm gonna go ahead and go on to the next one can you hear me hello michael you are next and your time starts now michael lang i'm privileged to have this opportunity to share with all of you tonight i have been a resident of colorado my entire life i grew up in what was then a newer community near the airport called montbello the housing market though has changed so much over the years when i married in my wife in 1995 in that early years we were always dependent on others for housing affordable housing only seemed like a dream for our family as a disabled couple we realized we wanted to live independently as independent citizens we knew our family had to be part and involved in a community since i have been a resident now of aurora through habitat for humanity i have been here 16 years i have been blessed to have my own home and to be able to raise my family in it i am happy to have this opportunity and there are many others like me who need these opportunities many times families have to make the difficult choices of what they're going to give or do having to decide whether or not to buy food or clothes for your children deciding whether or not to have medical care or even transportation families are facing all these different choices every day please our world is a changing place with unique challenges every day we see differences but the sad fact is we still don't have affordable housing for many people who still need it it's a stability factor that we need for our communities i count it a blessing to have a home and to be able to have raised my family i am very lucky to have neighbors and a community that looks out for me and helps me i still have challenges that i face every day but i am learning to persevere through them and i am grateful for this opportunity thank you for hearing this testimony and i pray that we would have a chance to see this past right now i can say that my three children have been benefited by this and all work or have worked in aurora to help this situation all of them are still working to help us better our community thank you for this and please pass this motion hello carol carol your time starts now carol broderman thank you good evening mayor kaufman and council members my name is carol brodigum an aurora resident i ask that you support habitat's requests for r2 zoning and approval of their proposed site plan at the mountain view united church site on east evans and joliet street the site plan provides for 20 homes in the affordable housing market range for families up to the 80 percent medium income it aligns with the 2020 aurora city housing strategy for increasing housing for essential workers in aurora as you know there is little housing available for purchase period in aurora and most new construction housing projects are large scale apartments for rent at prices that are equal to or exceed common mortgage rates paying high cost rents along with very high costs of houses keeps families in rental properties making it unlikely that purchasing a home becomes a possibility it is widely known that families who own their own homes are more invested in the community in which they live than those not owning their own homes it is desirable for those adults working in a community to live as close to their work as possible this project offers those opportunities for essential workers in aurora the project has been conceived in collaboration with habitat for humanity and mountain view united church which owns the property habitat has successfully built 139 homes in aurora since 1989. their architects have interviewed neighbors and studied the neighborhood architecture the site plan fits the size of the structures with the footprints of existing homes and compatible architecture the mountain view community homes project opens an opportunity for 20 families to own their own home and is in alignment with the aurora goal of having 15 to 20 percent of all new homes for purchase being in the affordable range of family income of 80 percent of the median income i urge you to support the r2 zoning and the site plan thank you next we have elroy elroy you're up time starts now good evening uh mayor kaufman and city council members my name is elroy kelsenberg i live in the fountainside community at 10999 east baltic place about a block from the proposed project of 10 duplexes i walk on joliet street by the project site several times every week i ask that you support habitat's request for r2 zoning and approve their proposed site plan my wife and i have lived at this location for four and a half years i personally have helped build habitat homes not only in aurora but in arizona and south carolina i know the needs of those who are fortunate to have been selected for a habitat home and i know how hard they were to build their home and how proud they are to enjoy their own residence there's been some misinformation about habitat homeowners being untrustworthy and attracting crime those claims are not only wrong and insulting they totally fail to understand the quality and trustworthiness of these homeowners they have worked incredibly hard to secure a homeownership opportunity as we all know there are far too few for sale homes in this for city workers with family income of 80 000 or less the city needs projects like this projects which aim to provide affordable housing for low to moderate income neighbors without such our home housing opportunities purchasing a home in the current housing market is nearly impossible as a close neighbor to this proposed project i firmly believe it is consistent with the mix of housing in the havana heights neighborhood and has been carefully designed with attractive housing units as well as on-site parking and safe streets and walkways i do not see either parking or the number of units as imposing a traffic problem thank you very much for listening i urge you to prove that our two zoning requests give aurora low to moderate earning residents the opportunity for housing they can afford and will be proud to own thank you hello brenda you're up next brenda brevard hey good evening my name is brenda rivard and i'm speaking for both my husband bob rivard and myself our address is 2080 south jamaica court our house is on the corner of east evans and joliet street which is adjacent to the lot being discussed in this plan we strongly oppose the requested r2 rezoning and site plans our biggest concern is the number of people and vehicles that will be crammed into an area that's smaller than the size of our cul-de-sac only six of the proposed homes will have a single car garage the other 40 to 75 vehicles on the site will have to park in front back and small single lanes driveways or on the streets mountain view community church the indicator of this plan already fails to manage parking for their existing businesses events and congregations parking regularly spills into the streets and has caused numerous issues the adjacent neighbors have always tried to be understanding and not complain but the church has taken no accountability to address this issue and the current plans will exacerbate the issues habitat and mountain view community church claim they have met and with and incorporated community feedback in planning this work while they have held the required meetings to inform us of their plans they made downward adjustments to the number of units they have worked against and apart from the community in every stage they are seeking to redefine our neighborhood it's very revealing that when they speak of the community they only reference the proposed community and new residents rather than the existing community and current rural residents it says that we aren't even there they even call it a different name mountain view community versus havana heights community many of my neighbors have lived in the grand vice area for 20 to 30 years and purchased care because it's a quiet rural feeling community with the knowledge that the lots around the community were all are one zoning our community is very ethnically and financially diverse homes of the adjacent neighbors range in the size from 2 000 to over 5 000 square feet but are all single family home changing this neighborhood's makeup and zoning is not in the best interest of aurora and is not in the best interest of our community it's being done to meet the specific designs of a church who had struggled to connect with our community in recent years the cost of land has helped drive up home costs make and help make them unaffordable the church is donating or leasing the land habitat could build single-family homes with garages within our one zoning and the homes would still be more affordable while we totally support habitat for humanity and their vision the type of units being proposed in this plan will not attract long-term homeowners to become part of an aurora community where their children can live and play and safely always unions and the habitat humanity built homes compatible with the neighborhood please disapprove the request to rezone this property and please disapprove the current site plan next up we have rockbert your time starts now go ahead awkward are you there on mute near me now yes i can go ahead this is milk amania speaking on behalf of ah good evening mayor and city council members my name is and i ask that you support habitat's request for r2 zoning and approval of the proposed site plan at the mountain view united church site a refugee from east africa has been able to touch parts of the american dream through habitat for humanity's life-changing work of accessing equity through homeownership as a single mother i've worked many jobs simultaneously throughout this community to afford my son matt who you heard from earlier a better life after spending many years in various apartments habitat allowed me to create a safe stable environment for my son who went on to complete college work for the community that he lives in and himself become a proud homeowner in aurora at the tender age of 26. in one generation alone habitat allowed me to create a much better life than my own for my son who i know will continue the same for his today i ask that you vote yes on this proposal which allows habitats to continue their great work of changing people's lives and creating opportunities for betterment within our own community housing surges that have severely impacted our neighbors and many people are a single paycheck single myth paycheck away from housing and stability the small instances such as parking issues should never outweigh the betterment of our community than its citizens so please take the moment to think of the everyday people who work day in and day out to simply live and vote yes on a proposal that will change so many people's lives for the better thank you next we have barbara barba go ahead hi this is barbara marl i welcome mayor kaufman and the city council i am barbara marl and i live at 2160 south ironton court i will make mine short i agree with paige anthony and the other lady that spoke against the rezoning and my question though is i understand that the homeowners will not own the land they will only own the homes there so on my question to anyone who can answer it who pays the property taxes and the land taxes because we pay our taxes and i'm wondering who's going to pay the taxes i know church is going to break on the land but who is paying the taxes on these homes and would someone answer that and please vote to not make it on r2 please keep it on r1 that is more compatible with the residents i live directly behind the church so i know and i've lived here for about 35 40 years so thank you and i appreciate your thoughtfulness good night next we have reverend tamara excuse me reverend tamara you are next are you there hi hi good evening mayor and city council members thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight my name is reverend cameron boynton and i am speaking in support of habitat's requests for archie zoning and approval of their proposed site plan at the mountain view united church site i serve as the director of strategic engagement for the interfaith alliance of colorado and our over 400 partnering case communities across the state i am speaking today in support of habitat's project to build 20 affordable owner occupied family homes for working families in aurora the interfaith alliance of colorado is an organization deeply committed to economic justice and deeply involved in helping communities of faith all over colorado use their unused or underutilized land for missional purposes like this in fact we partnered with mountain view united church to help launch this vision over three years ago and as an organization grounded in safe routed values that bridge many diverse religious traditions the interfaith alliance of colorado knows that religious values are at their core human values welcoming the stranger treating people with dignity loving our neighbor and caring those in need is our shared human call we it is the moral responsibility of government of communities of faith and truly of each of us to say yes when creative and passionate people like those at mountain view united church commit their resources to serve our neighbors on our behalf commit their resources to serve our neighbors on our behalf i pray that those same faith-rooted values that have inspired mountain view united church to respond to god's call for justice in this way might also inspire you all the city council and mayor to approve tonight's request and might inspire the neighborhood to receive these families with hospitality and welcome celebrating the richness that this project will bring to the community homeownership community investment and gratitude are the hallmarks of the habitat for humanity model and this project will benefit aurora and the wider metropolitan area for decades to come although the need for affordable housing existed long before the pandemic as the impacts of poverty 19 continue to widen we know that housing insecurity will be one of the long-term escalating costs and forward-thinking communities like aurora that address this concern on the front end will save money and lives in the future so to each of you on the aurora city council the interfaith alliance of colorado network is grateful to you for your service to the aurora community and we urge you to vote yes in support of habitat's rezoning request incite plan tonight thank you so much for your time next up we have gina ann dana ann your time starts now i the background if you're streaming it okay i can hear you okay i live at 2077 south ironton court one house away from the site and first off i'm very impressed with the number of scripts that mountain view and habitat from humanity have managed to distribute to people who have no impact from this rezoning and poor site plan i'm really impressed with how many people who have nothing to do with this area think that they know best how we should live our lives etc etc we are not against affordable housing we are against this affordable housing this is not jimmy carter's habitat for humanity there will not be homeowners building their homes they will not own the property there is no hoa to make sure that everything is taken care of there is not enough ground to absorb water on the spot that they're building on which is all sand and will definitely drain into the homes of the people behind them this is going to be essentially a mobile home park where people own the mobile home or the building but they do not own the land and when they move they have to turn the house back to habitat for humanity and get whatever habitat decides that they deserve to take on to their future endeavors we don't even know what that is or if there's a formula because they won't tell us so this is not just for our own benefit that we're complaining we also believe that the people who are going to be moving in to this neighborhood as it is planned are buying a pig and a poke they have no idea what they're going to be getting into and how hard it's going to be to get out of so i think you all need to understand that habitat for humanity isn't the old habitat they've joined with colorado community land trust and all the rules have changed and if you are not aware of this you are talking out of the side of your mouth that doesn't know what the other side of your mouth is saying so all of you who live far far away and just think this is a fabulous idea you really have no idea how bad this is going to be not just for us who have lived here a long time and taken care of our property but for the poor people who are going to buy in there realize there's no storage there's no ground there's no place for their children to play there is a park but with all the added traffic i wouldn't let my kid cross that street we need you to go for all of you out there who just think this is such a wonderful idea you don't have all the facts and i appreciate the fact that you all want affordable housing and we're perfectly fine with that we just don't want this affordable housing okay thank you mayor and thank you city hello mabel you're next go ahead mabel hello yes hello my name is mabel okay perfect thank you my name is mabel and i'm reading my proxy for sue ryden as she cannot be here tonight this testimony was sent to all the city council to be credible and added to the record as a former state legislator i was able to observe the work that habitat for humanity is doing in aurora and around the state it was impressive from the way they train new homeowners and the excitement the homeowners showed when they were able to move into their new homes i believe the project will provide much needed housing in aurora it will be an asset to the neighborhood in my experience the new homeowners will be families of strong work ethic who are working with in the civil service public safety and education i commend the city of aurora for recognizing our critical housing need and for prioritizing home ownership setting a goal that is 15 to 20 percent of all new home ownership units be affordable to households earning 80 of the area medium income this r2 zoning project proposed by habitat will help solve the housing shortage with 20 high quality energy efficient owner occupied homes designed to fit the neighborhood context off street parking open space and landscaping are all plans for in the project please vote in support of habitat's request for r2 zoning on the mountain view united church site thank you so much sue ryden the honorable student ready thank you next up we have muhammad muhammad go ahead yes thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk to mr mayor and the city council of aurora i'm an immigrant and i lived in aurora over 40 years and i appreciate aurora had me buying the first house over on making way by exposition uh the problem in here i hear a lot of people that is out of the community talking about the humanity the hepatitis for humanity and the shortage of the housing we are not i am personally i'm not against any of that i even support and i helped jimmy carter building home i helped a habitat for humanity building home i worked for a nursing home for 20 years and now i have my own business the the question in here is the safety and the runoff of the flooding who is going to guarantee and be liable for the the flow of the runoff of water and for the next for the houses next to the south of the church and south of where the land they proposed to build the homes the high density of the cars and the people the kids would not have there's an immigrant from africa i worked until i got to my where i lived in here my kids grow up in this community because they could get out and play and walk safely now the parking and visit other humanity and see where those people they park their homes on the street this there is not enough parking and safety secondly and the uh who i would like to know who's paying the taxes and what is the land the the people who is going to own the homes are they on the land are they they be able to sell the homes that is not the dream home this is like you rent an apartment rent in a small house i urge you mr mayor and the city members the city council member to vote no it's not the problem is not talking about a habitat for humanity we're not talking about the shortage of the houses please listen to the community the members of the community over 150 opponents the people in the church they don't even live in the community they have no feelings what is going on around this community this community the most diverse community in aurora we have the african we have the muslims we have the agent we have the american we have a native american we have the white we have wherever there is the most diverse and lovable people in here now mr nader i don't know who is he he said he's a member of the community i'm a member of the community i helped build abu bakr i have businesses since the lab known for 40 over 40 years my kids grow up in this house and there are young adults i would love to uh for you guys to oppose this not opposing the houses 20 oppose the r2 and thank you muhammad hi jerry you're up next go ahead okay my um am i there yes you are go ahead okay i wasn't sure if my time was ever gonna make it my name's jerry levine i live at 10801 east warren ave i own almost an acre directly south of the church property so i'm budding the property they're talking about affecting what's interesting is i've heard everybody that's given their address has been an adjacent person other people have said i'm in aurora well i've spent a lot of time in parts of california does that give me the right to say what's going on there everybody that's adjacent has spoken against changing the zoning from r1 to r2 i am definitely against the change in zoning that's not the way this neighborhood was designed i've owned my property for about 45 years now i've watched where my uh two of my adjacent neighbors had horse property i used to have horses directly next door to me my back lot was all considered a horse property because it was adjacent i've watched changes i've watched cul-de-sacs come um i just i don't think it's fair that you know you've got so many people that are are scripted and i'm sorry i don't sound as prepared as some of these people because nobody sent me a script of what to say i'm saying speaking from the heart is a homeowner that's owned his property for over 40 years and i don't think it's fair that people come in and just tell us what we should be doing i support habitat i have helped with the project habitat project in colorado springs about 15 years ago i support affordable housing i mean there's all sorts of things that can be done but it doesn't have to involve a rezoning if they need to be that greedy that they need to go for 20 units when they could build the 10 structures and have it with 10 units then i don't i don't have a problem with 10 units i have a problem with the 20. there will be a problem with parking there's already a problem on warren which is basically a desolate street in most of the time but like on fridays and saturdays we get overflow parking from businesses that are up at isla for havana or at uh warren in havana i just don't think that this is fair to the existing neighbors and also once again everybody that's given their address has spoken against it and everybody that's given their address is directly adjacent to the project so once again i've strong emphatically hope that you counsel and and uh mayor vote against the re-zoning vote against the chains are to keep it at r1 where this neighborhood was designed and built around thank you next we have maria maria go ahead good evening mayor kaufman and council members my name is maria sepulveda i'm vice president of community and government partnerships for habitat for humanity of metro denver we appreciate the opportunity to be able to speak in support of habitat's proposed site plan and request for r2 zoning for these 20 affordable homes on mountain view's site before i continue i do want to note that there were about 34 support letters that are part of the record but they weren't included in the council packet and they reflect a broad support from organizations um including the african leadership group naacp of aurora together colorado housing colorado aurora mental health yinbi and over a hundred faith leaders so as corey described after several meetings with neighbors and community members habitat meticulously designed to site plan your reviewing to meet aurora's historic affordable housing shortage where essential workers are housing cost burden as you've heard home prices have skyrocketed to record high levels even during this pandemic while wages have stagnated and even as of september 1st we saw that there were only about 70 homes that were um offered for sale at less than 300 000 and that's the price affordable to aurora's essential workforce so um that's that's the reason for um this plan this well thought out plan habitat's expertise in building homes for sale homes spans over 40 years as you've heard and in this time we've built we preserved over 1300 for sale homes affordable for sale homes in aurora loan 139 and our home ownership programs are transformative you can't build equity or intergenerational wealth by renting and these homes provide high quality energy efficient for sale homes that will remain affordable for 99 years using the landleaf model and i just want to make it clear families who buy these homes will earn equity they can count on a fixed rate affordable mortgage payment rather than the volatile rent payment payments that can spike out of control and this equity can be invested in family members education as you've heard some homeowners say today their health care starting businesses and even helping that next generation buy a home and build equity of their own just to be clear these habitat homeowners do pay taxes on their homes they can sell these homes and there hasn't been much difficulty selling these homes because there are so few homes affordable to working families so i just want to make it clear habitat home ownership programs are not a hand out they're a hand up that makes the american dream of homeownership a reality for so many hard-working families in our communities that work hard using their own sweat equity helping to build their home and their neighbors homes they take a dozen home buyer and financial education classes to qualify for these homes which prepare them for the financial responsibilities of homeownership and deep pride um of maintaining these homes and the principles of being a good neighbor so we've been really extremely uh thoughtful in reviewing the city's plan we need you to go ahead and thank them and we ask for your support thank you next we have sandy sandy go ahead you're live okay hi my name is sandy gafari that's like safari or ferrari with a girl mayor kaufman city council member thank you for giving me time to share today i both excited and proud to know that aurora where i spent over 30 years as an educator has made affordable housing a priority and that aurora also made it on the list for the top 20 cities to live in according to outside magazine and they cited the multicultural richness of the area and housing affordability we hope so to couple that there's a lot of land by the church and bingo it sounds like a win-win situation to me this vacant lot where too many folks have thrown their trash and their old tires can instead be a place for 20 homes for families with kids who can benefit from the stability of that that a home can offer on a more personal note one day in safeway i heard a voice this is safari ferrari i mean this is the fairy remember me and i turned to look into the eyes of a young man who was obviously no longer an eighth grader help me i say was it a columbia or east or aurora hills east he responds it's jason my memory is stretched but he continues you were my science teacher you always told me i had lots of potential and that i asked good questions and you asked me jason how can i help you get your back to school you have so much potential and you're you've missed so much school jason continued ms kapari when i was in middle school we were living in hotels and moved a lot it was hard finally my mom got us a little house and i was able to come home to the same place every day and that made all the difference for me it helped me work on my potential i graduated and now i'm going to metro and i want to be a pharmacist wow i haven't seen jason again but his story stayed with me a stable home can make such a difference my second little story is about some friends stan and jamie two hard-working adults in the hospitality industry who are also able to add stability to their lives but only the with the help from habitat and affordable housing i'm sure i'm not the first to share these kinds of stories and i'm sure you see that not only offered the only opportunity of the project of this church and the land and the habitat for humanity and we need your support for this key project thank you barbara you're up next go ahead that me yes okay yes okay thank you very much mayor and city council workers i want to let you know that i concur with everybody that has talked from our havana heights neighborhood and has spoken to against the r2 zoning and site plan currently under consideration there's so many reasons and you know i live at the end of the cul-de-sac directly opposite of the planned sites cul-de-sac very very visible and i know that when these structures go up there are and there's not enough storage for their personal items for instance then they start storing things around the sides of the house on the other side of the house it starts becoming a very slightly uh unsightly scene and there's not enough storage to accommodate that i believe that it has been researched that the trash removal trucks would have a problem getting into the cul-de-sac because of the cars parked on the street and therefore that's a problem of trash removal like others have said with the development on this lot there's going to be so much more concrete poured less absorption of water when we have our torrential rains that is going to flow south of the property because it's downhill from there so there's all these problems that are not being addressed and the people that have spoken in favor of r2 is all i agree it sounds very scripted and we didn't get a script either we're just talking from the heart but all of these people that have spoke against this i'm sorry in support of r2 is really trying to pull at your heartstrings they tell stories they found all these grandiose visions of what aurora needs but most of them as somebody else said it does not live in the neighborhood and so we want to welcome people that are in need of housing affordable housing we want to welcome them david was the first to say that and but we just need these problems solved we can't have it changed to r2 and have all these problems solved so i am deeply concerned about this and would request that you strongly consider keeping it as an r1 and we can figure out ways to help you by the build out of the property i know habitat uses donation labor all the time so it's not a model that's foreign to them anyway i just appreciate your support of keeping it as r1 and redoing the site plan to accommodate less people on a small lot thank you very much next we have mariella mariela go ahead thank you i'm here reading by proxy of habitat homeowner for for hara morales who couldn't be here today but whose letter has been submitted to all every city council member for the record my name is for hana morales and i have earned my habitat home in 2006. i stay earned because habitat does not give away homes but rather they partner with people like myself to work numerous what equity hours to get a home i had to pay a down payment for my home and i have a mortgage since 2008 and until now i have been i have built a large amount of equity in my home and have been able to establish a safe and consistent place for my family to call home in 2006 i was living in the basement of someone else's home this was not conducive to raising my children i could not qualify or afford a home the conventional way due to many issues that people in colorado face when it comes to securing affordable housing not only have we enjoyed a place to call home but my life and my family's life has changed tremendously habitat by helping me secure a home impacted my life career opportunities and educational opportunities our habitat home is a mixed income area so initially the community did not want us there it broke my heart to think that i was not going to be accepted enough as a neighbor fast forward in our 30-plus habitat homes still exist and our children are flourishing the fears of those who did not want us there in their community were completely unfounded and had no basis my habitat home has transformed my family's life in numerous ways i have gone from being a low income to working a six-figure job my daughter is in her first year at cu denver in a bioengineering program my son is a lockheed martin apprentice in his last year of high school looking to go to cu boulder both children thrived in cherry creek school districts i myself went back to school and earned a bachelor's in informational technology from the university of denver and most recently completed my master's in finance from csu so tell me now am i not worthy of habitat helping me help myself and you welcome me into your neighborhood would you have preferred i stay poor and had no opportunities to excel i think when you truly understand habitat is not a hand out rather a hand reaching out to families like mine up you will emphasize and want people like me in your neighborhood sincerely yours for hana morales next we have bob bob go ahead hi thank you uh good evening mayor and all city council members my name is bob anderson and requesting your support and approval of the habitat for humanity's request for the r2 zoning and also the proposed affordable housing development plan at the mountain view united church site i have been an aurora resident since 1979 currently living in ward 4 and a member of mountain view united church for over 15 years now i support this rezoning request and the proposed affordable housing development project plan that's been presented this innovative development will provide much needed affordable owner-occupied housing for working families many of whom are essential workers while benefiting the local neighborhood and the city of aurora you know a big part of my own mission uh mountain views and the project's mission is to work for justice and inclusion in our community i've been a part of this community like i said for uh gosh well over 40 years and uh it's our our responsibility i think to stand as part of our mission for the most vulnerable people among us it has been recently reported that one in three aurora families struggle to find affordable quality housing that specifically includes essential frontline workers their families and children i read in a recent letter to the sentinel colorado editor from a pediatrician named margaret kastgeon reminding us of a specific need and responsibility in our community to provide the safe housing and to protect our children i agree with this assessment you know to summarize some points noted in my project support letter to the planning and zoning commission this proposed project aligns with city of aurora and community goals specifically to meet critical affordable housing needs creates additional home ownership opportunities it fosters relationships with the public private and non-profit sector partners and provides potential economic development to this area of aurora this project aligns with the neighborhoods jurisdictional and those areas neighboring our community for accessible safe housing initiatives all right that's it um you know this aligns with aurora's development code and our 2020 aurora housing strategies and want to thank you for your time and this opportunity to speak on behalf of the project thank you hello wayne wayne you're next go ahead thank you mayor and city council members for this opportunity to speak in support of this rezoning application to provide 20 owner occupied affordable homes for working families i'm reverend wayne laws and aurora residents and the minister of social justice of mountain view united church for 50 years mountain view's been actively involved in this neighborhood and aurora through our support of service organizations such as aurora worms and night roaring interfaith community services over the years we have hosted numerous community events such as health care clinics including most recently coveted clinics food assistance programs housing assistance closing those systems our building is frequently used for a wide variety of community benefits including neighborhood meetings and meeting space for organizations such as boy and girl scouts alcoholics anonymous and mental health counseling we've hosted numerous neighborhood events such as an annual pumpkin patch art and craft fairs musical concerts just this weekend before last we organized and hosted an emergency winter clothing drive for 13 000 afghan refugees it currently hosts the african leadership group and focus point family resource center the partnership with denver urban gardens we provide over 25 garden plots for people living in the surrounding neighborhood 2017 when we heard of the interfaith alliance of colorado's congregational land campaign to leverage vacant land owned by faith communities to address the ever-growing crisis of unhoused people and lack of affordable housing we saw an opportunity for our underutilized data plan we spent 18 months studying the possibilities based on several factors including local resources neighborhood context size of the property and local need we narrowed our forecast to affordable housing which aurora leaders in the 2020 city of aurora housing strategy have identified as the top priority 2019 we released an rfp to the development community seeking a partner whose mission and vision of line with ours first and foremost was that the land is to serve the common good and not be a for-profit venture either for the church or the developer in rfp we stated that quote this project should result in a walkable community that connects with the surrounding neighborhood and brings life and energy to the exterior spaces that result in positive outcomes for existing neighborhood residents current and future ones unquote habitat for humanity metro denver with this proven track record and all our selection criteria was selected as our partner to help us make this vision for our land a reality what we are seeking for is not high-density one-bedroom multi-story apartment rentals the families who will be owning and living in these homes are the very fabric of our community teachers health care providers law enforcement essential workers working in our city yet cannot afford to live here these are homes with yards and landscaping and open spaces for children to play homes with off street parking and storage we believe this innovative project developed with neighborhood input provides your order with an opportunity to address its goals as outlined in the housing strategy report we respectively ask for affirmative vote on our application thank you hi molly you're next go ahead whoops hold on one second this is molly markert i represented ward 4 on aurora city council up to six years ago i don't live in the neighborhood but i have walked it door to door to door many a time and i'm glad to hear so many of my friends and neighbors when council's over i'm kind of speaking to council here when your term's over you go back to an ordinary life what happens is you drive around and you see things that you were a part of you got this zoning done you went to this commemoration you did this dedication sometimes celebrations sometimes traumatic memories but time marches on and you get to see the work that you've done this is exactly something like that this opportunity right now is something i always wanted to accomplish in my ward and the stars didn't align but they have now and it's your opportunity to make 20 dream homes safe and secure for families and most importantly for their kids this is your chance to seize the moment and make history this is what city council should do best you get to make new jobs you get to offer hard-working families the ability to prove with their sweat equity and to have a new life better than they might have ever dreamed possible listen to the testimony we've already heard if that isn't tugging at your heartstrings it is because it's true you get to improve the area that's vapor and enclosed it with lamps litter with roofs and walls that bring stability and success most importantly you get to do what is right for now and into the future i too strongly urge you to support just rezoning in this plan it will all work out just fine thank you next we have father michael father michael europe thank you my name is father michael nicosia a member of the board of directors of the colorado council of churches and a resident of aurora thank you mayor kaufman and esteemed council members for the opportunity to speak in support of mountain view united church r2 zoning the 14 member denominations of the colorado council of churches support such initiatives and applaud congregations like mountain view for seeking to provide affordable housing to some of rural citizens one of the painful realities of our society is that wages have not increased enough to keep up with the cost of living back in 2012 i began working full-time for a local hospice making less than 35 000 annually over the course of my three-year chaplaincy i didn't receive a single cost of living increase to this day wages have remained stagnant while housing prices who continue to increase sadly this is the reality faced by many essential workers at present one in three households in aurora are cost burdened i'm now nearing retirement age working for the church though i'm not sure when i'll be able to do so regardless if my husband were to become unable to work or should die before me i might not be able to keep up with the mortgage payments with housing prices being so inflated in recent years if i needed to sell my finding affordable housing on a limited income would be a struggle if not in an impossibility it has been mentioned that under 80 properties they're for sale in aurora under 300 000 but keep in mind the demand is so great that paying a hundred thousand over the asking price is not unheard of the city's comprehensive housing plans specifically call out for the need to create more housing that might be affordable for our city's workforce earning under 80 000 a year i'll admit that even that threshold would be out of reach for many the mountain view project and others like it would be an invaluable good start true the number of homes proposed may warrant some adjustments on the part of the surrounding neighborhood but my hope is that we can embrace sacrifices made for the common good i and my colleagues of the colorado council of churches support this project we respect respectfully request your affirmative vote on the proposed site plan and rezoning application thank you for considering this matter as it impacts the well-being of our citizens and ultimately our entire city next we have meredith meredith go ahead thank you yes my name is meredith ryan and i have written this message so as to be three minutes thank you mr mayor and all city council members for allowing me to speak in support of the mountain view community homes proposed affordable housing site i feel that mountain view united church is working proactively on behalf of all aurora residents in offering its long-held undeveloped land for affordable housing i feel strongly that aurora needs to build back a solid and strong middle class constructing these affordable homes will help in that effort i expect that these new residents will work well with habitat to ensure that they maintain their properties with pride and be an asset to the local business and retail community as well as being gainfully employed within our metro area the homes will generate equity for their owners who are free to sell and new owners can continue to have affordable mortgages throughout the length of the grand lease studies show that this does not lower the property values of other residences in the area these homes will support and encourage a healthy economy for aurora going forward they will be homes available for families with children who are being educated here this is a plus for the social health of all of the city in addition this local school district has room for new students mountain view united search and habitat have engaged with havana heights for several years to revise the site plan responses to neighborhood concern the development is now for a cul-de-sac of ten duplexes of one and two stories the project includes green space denver urban gardens will work with habitat to keep its garden plots within the overall space there may be some redesigning of this mountain view international garden to include cutting-edge horticultural features the church will continue to be the respectful neighbor that it has always been i know that mountain view united church will be a wonderful neighbor for the 20 families that will be housed in this proposed affordable housing habitat and everyone involved in its development will certainly work constructively with the city of aurora in achieving this humble affordable housing goal i ask that the city council and mayor kaufman approved this rezoning application and the site plan thank you bob you're next go ahead good evening mayor and city council members my name is bob price and i ask that you support habitat's request for r2 zoning and approval of their proposed site plan at the mountain view united church site and i am speaking from notes that i wrote myself as a resident of aurora for 25 years i've seen house and rental prices rise exponentially affordable housing is becoming more increasingly difficult for people in the lower and middle income groups to find for those making eighty thousand dollars a year or less there are very few housing options in the city where they work this habitat for humanity project gives lower income people an opportunity to own their own home the project with mountain view united church supports the city's desire to expand its relationship with non-profit sector partners who support shared and housing and community development goals i have volunteered at habitat home sites in the past and have always been impressed with the commitments the homeowners are asked to make in building their own home and others in their community the homeowners work side by side with the volunteers to build their home this commitment gives the homeowners a greater stake in their home and their neighborhood habitat gives families and individuals the opportunity to live in safe affordable and comfortable homes the homeowners i have met are always thrilled to become homeowners and are highly appreciative of their new home mountain view united church is generally off generously offered this current vacant land to meet the city's need for affordable housing plan for creating housing in aurora is becoming more limited so making use of this vacant lot makes sense as part of the city's plan to build more homes with enough rooms to house a family my experience with habitat has been that they make the most of the available space to provide the most possible how possible housing without creating overcrowded communities their floor plans also maximize the space available the homeowners and their children are always delighted to have their own space or room sometimes for the first time in their lives the habitat homeowners are not receiving charity the homeowners pay a mortgage on their home and as i mentioned earlier the homeowners also work on the homes themselves the homeowners exhibit a great deal of pride of ownership because they have invested their own sweat equity into their home this is something many homeowners have never experienced and they don't have the same connection to their home that a habitat homeowner has i'd like to ask a question of my own would there be resistance to this project if it was being built by a developer instead of habitat for humanity i sincerely hope you'll approve the mountain view united church and habitat for humanity part two zoning request mr mayor and members of the council i would like to thank you for allowing me to testify on this request next we have jill jill go ahead hi good evening mayor and city council members my name is reverend jill vanderwaal and i ask for you to support this habitat request in the r2 zoning so as a pastor i was called to a church in this area two years ago and when i was offered the position my salary was 65 000 at the time and when i said i don't really know if i could afford a house here but i want to live in a community where i serve the committee that called me said we're sure you can live south of parker and find something to afford and we're fine with you driving but for me and my friends who are teachers and social workers um that i've come to know in the community we want to live in the communities where we serve how there's so few opportunities for housing and you look at these houses that are under 300 of them and the deferred maintenance on them they need 50 000 just to have you know a furnace and an ac in them and so my friends that are starting on teacher salaries which is in the 40 thousands for a starting teacher they can't they can't work where they teach on the flip side of this my husband who works for hospice in aurora has had 15 co-workers leave in the last six months and half of them have moved back to the midwest because they just need to be in a more sustainable cost of living so for aurora is a strategic and proactive community i really think we need to be committed to providing and supporting affordable housing opportunities and i love the creativity and the willingness of mountain view's community homes to do that and i see how it clearly aligns and helps overachieve your our 2020 housing strategy so for me i guess in closing i seek to live out loving my neighbor that's hard but providing housing is a really tangible way that you can do that if living your neighbors yourself with a stretch well maybe love your neighbor as you would your kids if your kids went out of state went to school grad school and want to come back to aurora and teach second grade after grad school with dad and maybe a kid on their way do you want to jill are you still there jill next we have kara kara go ahead hi yeah thank you mayor kaufman and city council members thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight in favor of the r2 zoning and the close fight plan at the mountain view united church my name is cara martinez my husband and i have lived in ward 4 and aurora for 18 years our home excuse me lies between havana heights where the proposed habitat housing units will be created and three nearby elementary schools along with the overland high school and pre-middle school campus children living in the proposed affordable housing development will have the opportunity to attend excellent public schools as owners have stated there's a variety of mixed housing in the broader community housing prices in this area have more than doubled over the past decade and while that is a boon for established owners and homeowners like ourselves we are aware that this poses a serious challenge for renters increase barriers that are difficult if not impossible to surmount without support for would-be homeowners at low to middle income level this has been demonstrated in the city of aurora's own housing plan the presentations and testimony given tonight the issue of affordable housing is becoming even more acute and we agree that multiple solutions are needed this project aligns with the aurora's to provide university students two or more bedrooms child-friendly amenities and opportunities for families with children [Music] uh [Music] those of us who were around prior to the guardians of on havana development recognize the extent to which there was an underutilized urban space that could have been put to much more productive use while revitalizing and beautifying the area this has made such a positive difference and as a result inevitably increased housing density in what has grown to become a highly urban area a process that will continue in this dynamic ward that still has pockets of undeveloped land that were once rural the mountain view community homes plan is carefully thought out sticking into sensitive considerations what many developers would not bother making because it would cut into their profits whereas habitat has worked hard to compromise on design while still maintaining a viable affordable housing project the partnership with the local community and habitat for humanity metro is consistent with the city's housing plans which encourage innovative uses of vacant undeveloped land to address aurora's housing crisis habitat and mountain view united church have worked together in partnership to offer up a plan that meets the city's goals this gives me great confidence that the new residents of this third post site will also have the support and a building community to help them succeed in their new home i think this is a worthy proposal and a wonderful opportunity for the potential residents their children the surrounding neighborhoods including my own and the city of aurora thank you for your time and i ask you to please approve habitat for humanity's archery zoning and the proposed site plan at mountain view united church hello arnie you're next mayor kaufman and members of city council my name is arnie schultz and i live in the village neighborhood which is only one block away from havana heights neighborhood to our side a doubt and ask you through this new zone insights plan there's been a lot of thought by city council members advocates burned house in affordable housing and in the media about the desperate need to afford housing in aurora about a third of aurora's households are housing cost burden meaning that they are one financial emergency away from housing instability according to recent census data the word the 12th most housing cost burden in this city in the country is 40 percent of all households in aurora being housed in cross burdens the city has recognized this home ownership gap and now housing plans the city's compensation and housing plans specifically call out the need to create more for sale and housing affordable to our city's workforce earning under 80 000 a year the city of aurora's 2020 housing plan prioritizes homeownership as the solution setting a goal of 15 to 20 of all new ownership units to be affordable to families making less than eighty percent of median income the city of aurora's comprehensive plan and housing strategy that scored goals to find affordable housing units that are created to have two or more bedrooms child-friendly amenities and provide opportunities for families with children this plan meets the housing goals identified by the city the project aligns with aurora's udo calling for more diversity and housing types and layouts in residential and mixtures districts i'm really impressed by how habitat and the church have worked together in partnership to offer up a plan that meets the city's goal by constructing 20 homes that incorporate building materials and colors that are compatible with the existing neighborhood i want to finish with a comment included in the mayor's post on facebook yesterday after visiting a habitat for humanity site in gender and i also want him to refuse himself because he in that post he said he would both go on this and that's not allowed he said it was quote characteristic of the absence of a homeowner's association to take responsibility for common areas and clues i am insulted by this because neither havana height nor villages as an hoa in both a beautiful neighborhood an hoa is not required in either of those neighborhoods or on this site because they have no common space you may need to read the the law ernie you need to wrap up your comments if for these reasons board that i'm asking you to vote in favor of this development application rezone and site plan thank you thank you hi doug you're up next go ahead thank you so much for having me mr mayor and city council members my name is doug friesma and i am calling in support of habitat's request for the archery zoning and uh an approval of their planted project i am the pastor at first presbyterian church of aurora and so i know firsthand how needed affordable housing really is in our city people come to our church every day seeking help to get out of homelessness or to find ways to avoid losing the homes that they have people struggling with homelessness come to our worship services each week and members of our church have even opened up their homes to share space with people who cannot afford to have their own house all of that happens because the central calling of christian people is to love our neighbors and i can think of no better way to love our neighbors who are struggling to find affordable housing than to build a safe place for them to lay their heads and protect their families in fact i believe that if we simply say prayer for the people who come to us but then send them away without knowing that they have a roof to protect them and their families and we're falling short of the hope that god has for our community that's why i'm so grateful for habitat and for the mountain view united church they have proven to be good and faithful servants who care deeply for our neighbors here in aurora and they are seeking to help all of us live in a neighborhood that is ever more welcoming and ever more full of grace for every person who lives beside us and know that one of our city's stated goals is to increase accessibility to low-income housing and i hope that you will support this project in every way that you can so that we can move forward toward that goal together thanks so much for your time and god bless you gene you're next go ahead good evening my name is gene demmler thank you mary mayor kaufman and members of council for this opportunity to speak in support of the mountain view community homeless project i speak on behalf of the presbytery of denver's matthew 25 team and in support of habitat's request for r2 zoning and approval of their proposed site plan at the mountain view united church property the presbytery of denver is the regional body of the presbyterian church usa and includes presbyterian congregations within all of metro denver six of our worshipping communities are located in aurora and thus we are familiar with both the critical need for affordable housing in aurora as well as your excellent 2020 housing strategy which addresses aurora's housing affordability challenges among our congregants are families with low to moderate income who are struggling to acquire affordable homes one family with a full-time working mob lives with their parents one of whom is a presbyterian minister in aurora another couple with two young children have immigrated to the u.s escaping the violence of the republic of congo while the husband and father and his family works long hours and likes his work associated with the answers medical center he has little hope of owning a home near his employment as persons of christian faith we are compelled to address issues of systemic poverty we know that policy changes that promote more access to affordable housing are fundamental to our attempt to love our neighbors as ourselves the actions taken tonight on these proposals are essential ways to expand the availability of affordable housing and promote the common good of all aurora residents their actions congruent with both are presbyterian social policy and with the recommendations of the 2020 housing strategy of dr adopted by the council i thank you again for hearing our testimony and ask for an affirmative vote on the motions regarding the development of the mountain view community homes next we have deborah deborah go ahead hi um my name is deborah delvell and thank you mayor kaufman and city council members for listening to endless uh people talking in favor and opposed um to this r2 zoning and psych plan um i'm asking that you approve i live at 11595 east kentucky avenue in aurora so i don't live in the hoffman heights area and i have written out what i'm going to say so that i can be as succinct as possible it may sound descriptive but i truly am speaking from my heart i moved into aurora in 2009 when i chose to leave my marriage at the time aurora was far more affordable than denver where i'd lived with my husband for over 20 years i lived in the hood several blocks off of colfax and about seven blocks west of university and children's hospital my neighbors came from varied backgrounds and had varied jobs many were the types of families that will benefit from an opportunity like the one that will be offered if this request is approved they took care of their homes and they took care of their neighbors i happen to be very fortunate i have a job in it and i make a good salary i moved to kentucky avenue in 20 2016 and would have loved to have lived in the havana heights neighborhood i couldn't afford a home in that neighborhood then and i'm fairly certain i couldn't afford couldn't buy a home there now all that said i have people who i love who can't afford to purchase a home my partner deb drives a school bus for aurora public schools she makes about twenty two hundred dollars a month if she was trying to rent an apartment she'd have about a thousand to live on which would make it impossible to save money to purchase a home deb's paraprofessional on on the bus makes even less she's been living with her son and his family they are leaving colorado because of the rising costs she will have to move in with other family members and will leave colorado once the school year ends my former husband who is 61 also works as a paraprofessional in denver but lives in a friend's basement in aurora he too cannot afford to live an apartment much less purchase a home these are individuals so i can only imagine what it must be like to be a family the close parents who are working but together will make less than 80 000 a year i hear the fears of those who have spoken against rezoning and planning it really makes me sad that sad that they have these fears and um it makes me sad about the assumptions they've made of what will happen when families move in definitely we need to go ahead and finish your comments okay yeah i'm frustrated by the concerns raised i believe we can make this work please approve the zoning plan thanks so much hey ruth you're next go ahead hello good evening mayor and city council members um i'm kind of smiling in my voice because um my name is rick zeldell and i am sister to deborah denzel who just talked i really thank you for your time especially at this late hour um i want you to support habitat's request for the r2 zoning and the proposed site plan i'm a colorado native my family has been here for generations and i made my home in aurora because it was affordable at that time i've lived here for 21 years i first lived in the utah park neighborhood um for 11 years and then after my divorce i stayed with my sister deborah in her house in north aurora for two years and for the past eight years i've lived in the expo park neighborhood in a home that is owned by my mother i have worked in the education education for the past 15 years um first i was janet para for the aurora public schools at wheeling elementary where my kids attended and now i'm a special education teacher for the denver public schools um in the past 21 years the housing market as you almost exploded the house that my ex and i purchased in 2000 is now valued double that that we that we bought it for with my current teacher salary i couldn't afford that to purchase that house nor even rent that house in today's market and the house that i'm currently staying in if i were to be renting this place it would cost nearly 38 of my monthly income and it's a 90 square foot home that i i'm with my children in um but i'm fortunate you know our family has been fortunate because i have family that has helped me over the years and that's why i have housing stability as an educator i've seen far too many students moving in and out of school it's just a revolving door and districts and their families are searching for affordable housing housing fluidity does not provide students with a stable learning environment especially for differently abled students that i teach the mountain community homes the mountains are community homes that they would provide 20 families with that stability and the children would have optimal opportunity to learn and to grow roots in their community affordable housing shouldn't be a privilege affordable housing should be available to everyone so i thank you for your time and for your serious consideration in supporting habitat's request for the r2 zoning and the fun plan thank you so much hi katie you're next go ahead members my name is katie edwards proud aurora homeowner with several days of volunteer habitat build experience in the last five years we're talking work boots hard hat and i even packed my lunch in a red and white hard sided cooler to ensure the full construction vibe my teenage son a student at aps also did 30 hours of volunteer work at aurora habitat restore location on abilene what happens in aurora is the business of every aurora citizen assuming we're all interested in growing and protecting the value of our homes i have some good news according to zillow.com my homes your homes council members and the homes of the surrounding proposed build site have averaged an increase of a hundred thousand dollars in value over the last 12 months despite a global pandemic the not so good news research shows when our desire to protect self becomes important we have a human tendency to socially categorize we begin identifying us groups and them groups we see larger differences between us and them than what exists in reality we see our group members as individuals with personalized qualities and on the other hand we see other groups as having homogeneous broad unchangeable and mostly negative characteristics for example what comes to mind when you hear affordable housing section 8 unemployed and lazy disruptive unkept traffic trash dead grass lots of cars broken cars but is that true are owners of affordable housing homogeneously negative in character of course not council members each of you are hearing loud and clear from your constituents about minimum wage some say raise it we can't afford to live here others say don't raise it we can't afford to do business here leaving you stuck as a council each clear from your constituents about homelessness help them versus fix it and protect my home value again creating a visible division between the aurora council members making progress impossible in our city this is your first ever opportunity to vote unanimously together in an effort that will be a win for the city a win for the community and a win for 20 new homeowners who will be hammering their own nails installing their own siding and caulking every junction in the house i know because that is the work i did alongside future homeowners that build sites and they will be paying for their home through dollars earned at their job quick side note my quote enforcement officer in area 332 promptly responded to a vehicle parked with one wheel on the sidewalk and expired tags the vehicle was removed within 48 hours of my call code enforcement works in parking situations i certainly hope you see this tremendous opportunity to provide social and institutional support for this habitat build on aurora and once the project gets started maybe you'll put on boots and a hard hat and pack your lunch in a red and white cooler okay do we need you to go ahead and wrap up future homeowners to accomplish a common goal a strong clean enjoyable successful aurora neighborhood i'll see you at the key dedication ceremony peggy your next go ahead my name is excuse me my name is peggy newman and i'm going to read the testimonies for mark weidman who's unable to attend tonight but wants his testimony on the record good evening mayor and city council members my name is mark weidman and i ask that you support habitat's request for r2 zoning and approval of their proposed site plan at the mountain view united church as a resident of aurora which is the most culturally diverse city in colorado i stand by the idea that we live in a world that needs support all people of all walks of life i'm a volunteer with the aurora immigrant and refugee commission and support the notion that as citizens of this great city we need to provide help to those who need it as we live in a fair wage shortage not a labor shortage in this country many families are struggling to make ends meet the number of homeless individuals and families is increasing at an alarming rate and as we know the price of purchasing a home in colorado is out of control the proposed r2 zoning site on the church property for 20 duplexes falls within the price range that many families can afford many of the residents in the area for some reason believe that there only should be single-family homes built in the area and i believe are selfishly saying they don't want an extra car parked on the street or don't want the inconvenience of having to look at more people in the area we live in a changing world and it's our responsibility to not live under the umbrella of privilege and deny these people a chance to live in affordable housing it's been shown that students who live in a decent home are more likely to be successful in the future these residents would be right next to a business area and would also help support the local economy i've traveled in other countries and have seen what poverty and homelessness has done to them i've seen what homelessness have done here in colorado we must provide reasonable having housing costs for all residents and not just for those who have a lot of money a proposed plan would have 20 families and provide opportunities for their children and their future please support the habitats r2 zoning proposal and do the right thing thank you hello roberta you're next go ahead thank you my name is roberta cost i am the moderator for the mountain view united church council good evening everyone thank you for staying up so late thank you mayor kaufman and all of the city council members for this chance to show my support of this affordable housing project at the mountain view community homes i am also reading from my statement because i don't want to fall asleep in the middle and i don't want you to either i have worked for aurora public schools for three and a half years for two of those years i was a para on a special needs bus where we transported children with physical emotional and or mental health issues their parents or guardians worked hard sometimes having more than one job which meant that the special needs child might be cared for by an older sibling in the evening now i work in the division of equity and learning equity department as a receptionist many families come to our office needing information on how to transfer their child to yet another school they've moved again due to outrageous rent increases an unsafe neighborhood and or the lack of proper maintenance by the apartment manager they have had to take off work to make this change in person which in many cases means that they've lost the day's wages one thing that all of the families i've experienced have in common is the desire for their family to be in a place where they can afford and live in a safe neighborhood we have far too many children in our district that are unhoused especially now due to businesses closing or letting staff go due to lack of revenue during the pandemic we need to have more affordable housing in aurora i myself recently bought a condo and it was about a hundred thousand dollars over what it would have cost a few years ago i am thankful that i had the support of my family those who live in aurora need our support too thank you all for this time and for voting yes for our affordable housing project and r2 zoning good evening next we have lisa lisa you go ahead i thank you for taking my call i just wanted to um so first of all i am a budding um homeowner of this property so i'm one of the i think there's four of us but i think it hits our land the most so we're going to actually be right up against this new development um one thing i do want to mention since you can't see me i am a korean american that lives next to this property um i think right now the big thing for me is that i feel like we're being drowned out by people pitching habitat for humanities to you and that's not that we're not saying we're against habitat we support habitat we support affordable housing it's just we do not support the r2 it's the r1 zoning that we want to see we have over 150 houses um like we said that have signed a petition saying that they're not in favor of the r2 not that they're not in favor of habitat you're hearing some great stories and some uplifting people telling what what has you know habitat has done for them that's not what we're saying we just want it to be our one our one zoning you know david mentioned too that there is our neighborhood's full of diversity we have teachers we have you know blue collared workers we have we have everything around here um diversity and ethnicity and it's a great neighborhood as an r1 zoned neighborhood um one thing about this neighborhood too is that people talk about the parking it's not just the parking it's bringing in what they consider 50 50 more cars and 50 more cars on the roads there's a reason we don't have any um sidewalks there's plenty of areas around this whole neighborhood that don't have sidewalks i have two kids that started here when they were before they even hit grade school we were able to walk down the street without sidewalks because it's not a busy neighborhood in the evening it's quiet it's enjoyable but you bring in 50 more homes or 50 more cars 22 more homes it's going to be a lot more populated we moved to the neighborhood because of that that that quiet nice neighborhood it's a it's an oasis in the middle of a suburbs 10 homes here is is more than enough i mean we support that we would welcome habitat with open arms i mean we want that we want that diversity in this neighborhood we embrace it but as an r1 zoned neighborhood so please consider that it's nothing against habitat they inundate all these calls with a ton of people telling these stories which are great stories but it really does not have anything to do with the people that live in this neighborhood and and are here for that reason so please please consider that thank you for your time hi jesse you're next go ahead jesse are you there yep i'm here can you hear me yes go ahead all right thank you uh mayor kaufman city council members thank you for your time i know it's been a long night almost two hours my name is jesse frank i live at 10811 east warren avenue my property abuts the proposed building site i like all my neighbors in the savannah heights area we we support habitat for humanity and their mission for affordable housing i listen to all these callers and it makes it sound like we're against it have you heard any of my neighbors speak against habitat free manatee or affordable housing i think that was a silly thing to keep bringing up over and over that's not the case what we're asking for is not to change the zoning from r1 to r2 that's simple now how to tap humanity says that we can't do that i like many of the people have called on here i have donated my time and done habitat humanity builds in fact i work for a company that's erupting distributor that just that gave the habitat for humanity the rookie material for free but the church is going to donate the land and there's volunteers to build the houses and the materials donated or a good portion of it why can't you keep it r1 zoning and you can still help people they can still have affordable housing and 150 of your neighbors my neighbors this is our community we're part of aurora too except for the people that are calling in we actually live here all i'm asking is please consider not changing the zone you can still help people with affordable housing and we welcome them but you don't have to change the neighborhood to something negative to do it because adding 20 homes in a spot designed for seven is not a positive thing not for the community nor for the people moving into them but this is a win for the new homeowners it'd be the win for the community and a win for the city that's all i have to say i appreciate your time that concludes public comment for agenda item 16a tonight very well um it's um let me turn to council members and to ask um the applicant or staff any questions uh are there questions i do um i'll go ahead who's in councilman marcano casamayor please proceed thank you sir um so i do have uh three questions here that i just want to run by the applicants and or staff uh first is the property taxes uh can you please explain to us who will be responsible for those property taxes yeah so we we talked to the county assessor and the assessor told us that they would assess the land as residential land so these homes will be paying residential property taxes on both the land and the improvements thank you uh question two is that uh the land my understanding is it will remain in possession of mountain view united church and not habitat for humanity in the form of a 99-year land lease is that correct that's correct thank you and number three with regards to stormwater runoff those calculations i used to work in the aec industry before i ran for office those calculations are done whenever you are basically putting down impermeable surfaces such as concrete and you would not have been able to get this far in the process is my understanding without being able to react basically accommodate all of that water so what can you describe to the public what the process was that y'all went through for that yeah that is correct so we have a civil engineer that we've been working with that has designed a storm water management infrastructure for this project and so the water that is running off from this project will go to a storm system that will feed into an existing detention pond that will be improved and will feed into the city system if necessary that all was designed by a professional engineer and that was reviewed by the city of aurora thank you and just a one little addendum and the grading for the uh permeable surface is also not going to toss water into anyone's backyard correct yes the city would not let us um do something like that all right thank you further questions now let me ask you oh yeah councilman please proceed so i'm a little bit i'm well first off these are site planning questions as opposed to zoning questions but i think we've kind of merged that now but as far as the land ownership um typically in a land trust type of situation the owner would pay a mortgage for the bricks and sticks and would pay rent for the land could someone explain how that works with the church so will the church since the church owns land are we now going to are we talking about having 20 rent paying properties on to the church that will simply go into the church coffers because it's not going into the elevation land trust so could someone explain that financial model to me i can explain that um so habitat will be leasing the property from the church and then habitat will be subleasing that property to the 20 different homeowners and so habitat will be the entity that works between works with those homeowners to collect that lease payment okay so i guess that answers part of it so the homeowners then will have a mortgage payment on the bricks and sticks in other words the house itself that the homeowner will then have a um a payment that would go to habitat and then habitat pays the church so as far as common area support and things like that is that you know as far as uh you know taking care of any common areas is that a church responsibility then or is that habitat responsibility is that a homeowner association responsibility how will that part work that's a great question um so we we very thoughtfully and intentionally designed the site to limit the amount of common area and the reason we do this is we want to one empower homeowners to take ownership of their property we don't believe that these homeowners should be treated any different than you know adjacent property owners that don't have an hoa and every dollar that a homeowner pays towards an hoa is a dollar that they can't pay towards their mortgage so for example if a homeowner has an hoa of 200 a month that's forty thousand dollars roughly of buying power that they lost and so we try to limit that uh those common areas as much as possible so with that said we do have one shared element in this uh development and that is that storm system that is that that storm system that that moves water from the cul-de-sac to that detention pod and so upon approval of rezoning and site plan habitat and the church will work out a maintenance agreement for how that detention pond and that storm system will be maintained okay so if i could just follow up on it because there's something that so typically a homeowner association provides some sort of service to the people who live in that that homeowner area for example um the sidewalk that you're going to be installing it will be a public sidewalk owned by this area and homeowner association would be responsible for shoveling that when snow occurred the homeowner association would be responsible for negotiating the contract for a waste pickup for trash can pickup and and things like that so without a homeowner association i understand what you're saying everybody's you know running their own thing everybody will have their own contract for waste management who shovels the sidewalk and and you know just takes care of the general community yeah so yeah this will be traditional home ownership just like every other cul-de-sac within the havana heights neighborhood every single one of those residents each cul-de-sac does not have an hoa it's their responsibility to shovel their sidewalks it's their responsibility to maintain their properties and if there's a problem with that they are held to the same accountability as everybody else under the codes of aurora's you know property maintenance codes again sorry because it keeps bringing things up so sidewalk that you showed us is behind all of the houses behind their fence so typically homeowners are not responsible for shoveling behind their fence the hoa is so when the church this will be owned by the church i guess because the sidewalk will be on church property that's leased by habitat so will the church be responsible for taking care of those sidewalks so all the sidewalks shown in the plan are all in public right-of-ways um they're all public improvements and so they will be the responsibility of those adjacent property owners to maintain which is similar to all the other houses out there i don't think that's right but okay um let me recognize myself to the applicant but first of all um i think you know when havana heights was built they really weren't homeowners associations and where we don't have them i mean there are other neighborhoods i think they take pretty good care of their property where there's not over associated we have falling fences down on arterials we have massive code violations that overwhelm our staff and so this i i'm just surprised that and i need to look at i guess our udeo say how can something how can a project like this get biased without a mandatory homeless position let me tell you where it's important it's important to preserve and grow the value of this property and let me tell you i went to look at one of your properties at 48th and elizabeth it's fairly like this like the prop in terms of square footage and things it's an alley instead of a cul-de-sac then it was an eyesore and you know the fact is that nobody was taking care of the landscaping i mean it's all dent except for some trees but all the grass is dead and it's not that old and and there was no architectural control to where people were just doing whatever they wanted to do and it was lowering the value of the property of their neighbors um you know you have to maintain reserves to take care of roofs you have to maintain reserves to eventually you know paint the the development and so that's something that had i mean you could you could help them by providing that habitat for humanity because to provide that management service to them uh at a much lesser cost than using a private company but it's just an eyesore and i don't think that i i you know um i that's something that we need to have a discussion with planning that i mean any any um development like this ought to have some kind of mandatory association and let me tell you you're going to cost them by virtue of not far more than they would ever pay in the monthly dues in terms of the values of their property and then the fact that it's you know uh our you know our staff's overwhelmed they're not gonna be our co-enforcement people are overwhelmed they're not gonna be able to take care of this but but i mean you you're just sowing the seeds for for problems by virtue of not doing that and how old is the project at 48th and elizabeth project was completed last year i think he just lagged out yeah oh my ear now you're in charge francoise yep yep your turn yeah yeah oh well i was going to ask her question but um maybe i should defer to others first you can ask a question as yourself okay okay i'm gonna recognize myself um my question is to the applicant and um you know i know this is a rezoning from um r 1 to r 2. so my question is under current zoning of r1 with the lower density um are you not able to you know to i know you would have to build less homes but are you not able to make it um happen with less density great question um and so as i kind of outlined in in the presentation you know re staying with the r1 uh does a couple things um single-family homes are are more costly for us to build um they would not match the character and the size and the scale of the surrounding area because the homes that we build are modest they're 1200 1500 square feet whereas the homes that are out there are 2 000 3 000 square feet and then lastly and the biggest thing is we would not have enough homes to offset the development costs which include a a huge investment in public infrastructure all that sidewalk that cul-de-sac those utilities and so we would not have enough homes to offset those costs and it would increase would increase our cost to a level that we could not come back from and so i think you know developing affordable for sale housing um is very tough it takes layers upon layers upon layers to achieve affordability and so you know we heard a few people talk about it you know we use partnerships for land like the church we use volunteers to help our staff build we we get donations and sponsorships and grants we design our homes efficiently and even with all those layers we are still fighting an uphill battle against labor shortages and construction costs and it's very hard for us to make these affordable and so that free zone from the property from r1 to r2 is that layer that really allows us to offset those costs and make these homes affordable okay so it is so you're saying that if you could only build in the r1 10 let's say 10 homes that there's no way to build it for 300 000 and still make a not even make a profit just be able to um to absorb your development costs exactly we're not able to to create enough layers to get those homes down from what they cost to build to what we can sell them for the point where we can sell them at an affordable rate okay um i appreciate that my my i i'm conflicted because of the neighbors and and that they bought in our zoning area um let's open it up to other questions okay i'm back i'm sorry okay i just finished i guess remember combs okay um so yes so go ahead um so i have a question of staff do we require an hoa of like duplex developments that are not affordable no we do not there's nothing in the udo that would require an hoa or a metro district see um well then um are you uh let me do a follow-up question are you aware of any uh new developments that don't have hoas uh that um are duplexes which are i think they call them shared said shared homes i don't remember the name but there's a there's another name for him but duplexes basically yes so most of the infill development in some areas a and b kind of central mid areas of the city do not have hoas um smaller development generally doesn't you have hoas or metro districts for larger scale development in the plains out east most of the most over time well i would just encourage the members to go out to if i could ask the applicant when was the 48th and elizabeth built i'm sorry 44th and elizabeth built that that project was completed last year it's and it's already i mean i would encourage the members to go out and look at that because that's what you're going to get here no further questions mayor councilmember mcconnell thank you uh corey would you happen to know offhand what kind of landscaping they used at the new build um was it something that's actually suitable for our climate yeah um oddly enough i actually visited that same exact property um yesterday with my family i was showing them the the project um and unfortunately i did see some landscaping that wasn't maintained but i also saw opportunity and i saw ownership so i saw a vacant lot much like this vacant lot that was often times overgrown and vacant for a very long time i saw that lot transformed into 32 new homes for for households to live in in a stable way and i saw ownership i saw patio furniture on there on their porches i saw halloween decorations on their houses and i saw a couple building a new fence taking ownership of their of their property and building a new fence and so um to answer your question there is some thought there's some sod in the in the tree lawn areas and then there is some rock mulch and some perennials throughout the property and so we as habitat we're always looking at our properties and trying to take lessons learned and improve on our next properties and what we've learned from that development that we're taking forward to this development is that every single home on this property will have a permanent irrigation system that property does not have permanent irrigation and so these these any sod any plants will get properly watered here the other thing we're taking forward with this property is to better delineate our property lines so that every resident at this at this development understands the extents of their property and understands exactly what they need to be maintaining under that um and lastly as part of this the land lease structure that we have with these residents um they're expected to be maintaining these properties um and if they do not maintain this the properties we have the ability to intervene and and um make them do something mayor dave gruber councillor so as you said you went to the property and with your family and you saw that it was in bad disrepair can you tell me the action that habitat for humanity has taken as a result of your site visit to correct the deficiencies that you saw well that property is not a land lease property that is a fee simple property so those people own both their land and their their improvements um and so they they need to maintain that there are homeowners and if they are a violation of code somebody can call a code violation on them and so having just gone there on sunday we haven't talked it over very much but at this point there is no further action that we will be taking okay so again let's go back to the aurora property then are you going to mandate in your terms of lease uh a property standard and are you going to inspect the property to ensure that it meets that standard so we don't fall into the same situation habitat for humanity has in denver so the land lease um stipulates that those owners need to keep their property up to code um and if they are in violation of that they would be in violation of their lease and we could intervene uh we will not okay so okay so maybe i didn't ask the question clearly will habitat for humanity take responsibility for insuring the neighborhood or because what i think i heard you just say is that the if the city's code enforcement uh goes out there and writes them up you have no way to know that i mean the city code the city code is going to give it to the prior to the house owner again the bricks and sticks but the city code typically isn't going to go to the church and give all the write-ups to the church although that might be a solution so if the church is responsible for all the code enforcement and then the church works with habitat for humanity to fix those code things that might be an acceptable solution but i really didn't hear you say that i heard you say that um you know the habitat will expect the city to do the inspection and the city but then uh you know who who's responsible whose belly button is responsible for for fixing the things that you and mayors saw in this other development those homeowners are responsible for maintaining their property and so we you know we take proactive um actions to prepare those homeowners we they take classes um you know about how to maintain their property and then at the aurora property just like all the other residents around them they will be responsible for maintaining their property in accordance with city codes but again it isn't their property they own the house but the land is owned by habitat for humanity so so if there's a code violation it would seem that the code violation would go to habitat for humanity and habitat would have to come out and fix that i just hear you you you push off push off that responsibility and it's a major concern of the neighbors the responsibility in the land lease is transferred to that homeowner and so that homeowner has the responsibility of maintaining the property that they are leasing from habitat so habitat for humanity and the church have no responsibility and will do nothing to help if the if that neighborhood turns into the same problems that you saw in the neighborhood in denver uh when you visited we will make sure we got this right habitat for humanity has a long-term interest in these properties uh we are ensuring that they are affordable for the long term and so we do have an interest in these properties but we are empowering these homeowners to be homeowners just like all the other residents to maintain their property up to code okay okay so the answer is no habitat for humanity will not enforce the standards even though habitat for humanity owns the property that the house is built on is that i mean you keep going around that but that's basic is what i'm hearing you say habitat for humanity will not enforce code standards uh on property that habitat for humanity is leasing from the church the mayor i think that's what i heard you say then i'll recognize the next person please proceed with clarification on that please proceed and then i will recognize council member mario after council member gruber is done i mean how many times can we ask the same question please proceed councilmember until we have an answer i think he's answered it several times you're you're out of line please proceed councilmember you are not recognized councilmember mario you will be recognized when councilmember gruber is done so corey again the bottom line that i asked before was that if the house fails to meet code and the property is owned by habitat for humanity or is leased by habitat humanity from the church and there is a complaint what is hap you know will habitat for humanity stand up and fix that complaint or will habitat for humanity stand back and say we have no responsibility even though you own the land habitat for humanity under that lease has the ability to intervene has the ability because they would be in default of their lease to to help that homeowner find out what's wrong find out why they are not maintaining that property um and assist them in in addressing that issue so you do again we keep going around on this so do you take responsibility will habitat for humanity take responsibility for the code violations the responsibility is to the homeowner on that property but under the lease habitat has the ability to intervene if they are in default of their land lease to understand what is happening and to assist that homeowner okay that's a non-answer mayor i concede okay councilmember i was trying to ask um after hearing the same answer over and over and over and over and over again if we could move on i do have a question um um about the location if we could just um just inform the public this is next to um havana street correct like just one block off of havana um is that serviced by rtd um at all is that like do we know if that's a busy route or because i'm assuming off along a major corridor it is was that question for me i whom i ever would like to answer that question um there are bus routes both on havana and i live adjacent to the property or near the property okay because i i think one thing you know just to kind of think about and consider i heard some concerns around parking i i don't know whom is going to be living in these areas but i do like that it's next to um kind of like a major roadway and that there is public transit that's going to be accessible there um i think that's something you know we we ought to consider when we make these kinds of decisions is kind of proximity to um other methods of transit um to and from you know work or recreation but it i'm assuming along havana which is a major corridor and busy street that it would be a pretty frequent bus i don't know the exact um schedule but um just wanted to point that out as well thank you sir um yeah i do want to highlight that that is correct councilman i think on havana it's the 105 which if i'm not mistaken is one of the busier bus routes in rtd's network it's a major connector from nine mile up to colfax which is where a lot of folks make a transfer there but i wanted to circle back to the conditions of the land because i think the council member gruber i suspect intentionally uh added some confusion here so corey i'm gonna try to lay out how this property ownership works and you just tell me if i missed up here okay so you have a 99-year land lease that the church is giving the giving habitat to develop but the church will maintain ownership of the land correct right right the anyone who becomes a homeowner there is responsible for maintaining their parcel of the overall land correct correct excellent that be uh the sidewalks and all the other improvements there that's all going to be dedicated to the city as public right-of-way correct correct great so this is not unlike the conditions in havana heights as they exist today and throughout other parts of the city where i have to tell y'all folks are ecstatic to not have to deal with an hoa because they are turns out perfectly capable of maintaining their own property without paying a large hoa fee on a monthly basis and being subject to the political gamesmanship that often takes place on hoa boards where people take out their petty grievances upon one another through harassment that's something that i hear a ton about as the ward 4 council member so i'm very excited to see a new housing development in ward 4 that does not include an hoa because that's going to give those folks some serious peace of mind while still allowing the city through code enforcement to address code violations should they arise and one thing i did want to point out with the lease arrangement with habitat you are able to provide educational and supportive services to ensure that folks are able to properly maintain their homes correct that is correct without penalizing them correct correct and that is that approach typically effective um we have always found that our education prepares first-time homeowners more than any other first-time homeowners have been prepared before it's very i believe i would believe that i've lived in an hoa before i became a renter again and it was a miserable experience it was 32 units uh townhomes that were governed by an hoa they were they had we couldn't get a court 15 years we couldn't get a quorum on that hoa and they charged us 250 a month to do absolutely nothing the property looked like trash i had to call code enforcement on ourselves to get our hoa to actually do anything so i've familiar with the havana heights neighborhood i'm familiar with other parts of ward 4 that don't have hoas people are perfectly capable of maintaining their own properties councilmember gruber and the rest of my colleagues and i just find it very suspect that when we're talking about affordable housing that's when suddenly people want to talk about what other people do with their own property and i just want to put that on the record because i think it's exceptionally suspect encourage everybody to go to 44th and elizabeth and see what one of these developments looks like after a year uh further discussion mayor uh it comes from the coast i do believe that we are voting on this tonight um so i don't imagine that we'll be able to get from our homes to 44th and elizabeth before doing so um but i think that we can see that in again as council member marcotte pointed out in all types of neighborhoods you have some folks that are going to be irresponsible with their land and i want to point out further that they talked about what some of the shortcomings were of that project that they didn't have irrigation systems that they're going to change that here so they have looked at what are the issues that occurred and how can they change them they haven't just decided to do nothing so i think it's really unfair and unreasonable to ignore the efforts that they have put in to try to avoid a repeat of that situation recognize myself i think he's understating uh the condition of the property and i'll just leave it at that further discussion persons uh councilman rosens thank you um first of all i want to say that i was in ward one helping put up a habitat for humanity house and it was it was a very nice experience now obviously i didn't do a lot of the heavy work i did help put up a side of a house but i appreciate it and i i appreciate the work that habitat for humanity does and i honestly as someone said tonight no one has said anything no ill will of habitat for humanity um you know i i think i heard you say that the church put out an rfp for this and you you won the rfp so um congratulations on that um i i did write down some comments that people said and like i said no one said anything bad about your habitat for humanity someone did say this is this is tearing at our heartstrings because it is we do know that people need homes they need places to live and it's unfortunate that this is an r2 because you know we have to take in consideration the people that live there the people that have owned homes there for 40 years paid their taxes they remodel i mean this is this is a nice neighborhood that people will fix their porch they will paint you know they will put new siding on so we have to think about you know the people that are already there the neighbors the the budding neighbors and think about what they said too but you know we did get we got in in the weeds tonight on a lot of this and unfortunately mr arnold played the race card which was just disgusting to me that that that he would stoop so low to do that that was not necessary we're talking about rezoning here not about race so i just wanted to get that on the record that that was very offensive for him to do that i did want to ask you though i guess i have to go back to one of the earlier questions um when and i read the information from the planning and zoning commission and someone asked what are the price points of the duplexes and it said 250 to 350. okay so i'm thinking okay you've got 20 of these or 250 350 and the larger ones i'm assuming will be the 350. it so is it not at all possible to build the larger ones um and and and actually uh councilmember bergen asked this question 350 is a lot of money when you're not having to pay for land um i guess i'm not understanding how you put 350 [Music] times 10 that's a lot of money when you're not paying for the land and i'm assuming that these are not going to be luxury homes with all the bells and whistles you know you know you're not going this is not cherry hills you know they're not going to have all the fancy schmancy stuff they only have a single um garage so i'm thinking that to me that sounds like a lot of money now you you didn't mention the infrastructure needs to be put in um but it is a lot of volunteer labor it it just seems like a lot of money for you to say that you can't build 10 and not not make some profit off of it am i thinking wrong i can elaborate on on how we build and how we um and so i think what you're asking is can we can we afford to build 10 homes and make them affordable and and the answer is no um and that's because even though we have partners like the church who is leasing the ground to us even though we have volunteers even though we have sponsorships construction is extremely expensive and everybody in denver should know this construction costs are skyrocketing in denver just last year uh our typical framing package for a house which is typically 5 000 went up to 22 000 for a while uh we're constantly struggling with this on all avenues and so you know yes the land um has been through a partnership but we still have to pay tax fees we have to pay design fees we have to pay for public improvements public infrastructure we have to get that infrastructure to the units we have to build infrastructure foundations we have to build that storm system and so the amount of things we have to build is upwards way above what we can sell them for and i don't know if that was an error but we will most likely be selling these for somewhere between 250 and 300 not up to 350. as as the housing plan stated uh the majority of people need homes under 300 000 and that's really where we have to be in order to get these to a level where people can afford them right well it and i'm glad you said that again but it is in our backup um but you know this council keeps saying affordable affordable affordable low income look and so you're you're sitting here telling us that it's not possible you know i'm in construction myself and i know that and i say that every time i hear affordable affordable affordable it can be done you know construction labor i mean materials it's it's tough but i still go back to yes this is a wonderful project um but at what cost at what cost to the neighborhood at what cost to the residents around there um you know it it's it's tough when you when you think about a church just deciding to do this um it's going to change the whole landscape for what they say 150 some people 150 some houses in that area because the church decided to do this for 20 houses and to me that that weighs heavy on me you know at what cost are we expecting these this neighborhood to go to for the church's decision so you know i'm i'm really grappling with that mayor mayor thank you all right councilman mcconnell thank you sir so i'm going to give you all some more background on this as the word council member i'm very familiar with this project so bear with me this will be a little bit of a story here um but i first came across this project in 2019 when i was actually campaigning and i was walking down east evans avenue when i see across from mountain view church a giant banner that says no section 8 housing i thought oh that's weird wonder what that means kept knocking doors no one really talked about it um and then i as i was coming up east evans i heard uh a huge crash behind me basically um so you know we had some of the complaints that we heard about were about folks you know parking and where are they going to put their cars we don't want people parking on the street well thankfully that day there were two cars parked on the street right across from mountain view church right across from where the no section 8 housing banner was at because they saved my life there was someone driving a white suv who i think had a medical episode passed out while doing probably 40 or 50 miles an hour totaled both of those cars and ended up in the front yard of the person right across the street from mountain view church i was in front of those cars by about 20 feet so if they weren't there i would have probably been you know roadkill um got the lady out of the smoking car with the help of some of the folks from the church and that's when i learned a little more about the banner when i was inside talking to them but after winning and getting sworn in i met with some of the folks in the neighborhood and they still thought this was going to be section 8 housing and they were up in arms about it and after talking to the church turns out it's not section 8 housing it was going to be affordable housing built by habitat at the time um and the original plan just so you all know was much more dense than what we're talking about tonight i think it was originally going to be some kind of r3 development like 40 some odd units um and i have to tell you i've been through several of the community meetings with these folks listening to what people are talking to i know that they have actually taken community feedback into account because what we see today in front of us is exceptionally different from what this project began with but i really do think that the section 8 housing spin on that that you know came from i think misinformation uh when people first got wind of this really tainted this entire conversation um and that's unfortunate but i think that habitat has gone frankly above and beyond what is expected of a developer um in our city i wish all of our developers frankly would do this like they had three plus community meetings and actually went door-to-door canvassing for people or for you know to talk to the neighbors which i don't think any other developer does and i wish we had more of that and it was because of all those conversations that the project ended up the way that it did um i just want to reiterate because i've heard from folks that you know habitat is going to somehow make money off of the church is going to make money off of this the habitat gave money to the church none of that's true um that we were the city was going to give all the infrastructure to the developer for free so why couldn't they just build seven homes none of that is true as you heard they're responsible for building all of the infrastructure and paying for the tap fees water waste uh storm sewer sanitary sewer curb and gutter the improved side the sidewalks where there are currently no sidewalks and all that jazz all of that is coming as part of this developments cost that's why it won't pencil out if you try to just do six or seven homes on here and i just want to be very clear council member berlin's what they said isn't that housing that affordable housing is impossible is that affordable housing at the small scale that folks are asking for in spite of knowing it's not financially possible is well unsurprisingly not financially possible i also want to point out that what two blocks not even actually just in the same block in uh to the west there's r2 zoning already in place there's 24 24 units of of r2 zoning on east warren avenue there are probably just as many on east asbury avenue this is nothing that's out of step with this community this is a very eclectic neighborhood i really enjoyed walking it because you got to talk to folks who literally live in mansions in my opinion mansions uh large houses and like really you know kind of standard single family homes and then also you know these dense town homes this is all already there so i don't really understand where the opposition is coming from i hear folks but it doesn't make sense to me and i need to under reiterate once again that because one of the big concerns that i got from folks a lot was that oh we're gonna have poor people in our neighborhood and one of the most important emails that i got honestly was someone saying they don't want this here because they don't want people who are going to be able to see their front yard from their front yards and figure out what they want to steal off of their like landscaping i kid you not like that's how low the conversation got unfortunately these folks are gonna they have to earn 70 i'm sorry 68 and a half thousand dollars a year to qualify for this program which by the way is three thousand dollars more than the aurora's actual median income so these folks are going to be middle class poor aurora like middle of the middle in a neighborhood that frankly used to be middle class until our housing prices got completely out of hand so the concerns about the character of the neighborhood what this proposal is is already in existence there i'm happy to walk this with you all if you don't believe me it's right there it's a stone's throw from sushi katsu it's a stone's throw from tynan's uh surplus lots like that's what this neighborhood is mayor um yeah i mean i know we're getting into whether people want you know habitat for commanding i don't think that's an issue at least it's not for me um i don't i don't think it was from some of the callers and some of the emails that we received um i think it's it for me it comes down to changing the zoning and we're getting into i guess we're mixing um the site plan with the zoning but this is about rezoning um and if it had been zone r2 no problem like perfect perfect plan perfect project works really well but it's currently zone r1 and the people that bought their homes bought knowing that they were in a r1 zoning and we went through the udo um a few years ago i used to chair the ped committee and it good lord it took years to get through the the zoning changes um that that we were working on and we had a lot of a lot of changes we had public engagement over probably at least over a year we had public engagement meetings and got input from the public that plan was put together with the zoning the way it was and now now we have someone that wants to change the zoning and i understand why and he's he made the the case that can't build 10 homes on that parcel of land but for me personally it has nothing to do with having a which sounds like a great project it has to do with changing the zoning from people that already have lived there bought their homes under the under the perception or the or not the perception but under the knowledge that it was going to be low density that's that's where they bought and even if there's r2 you know a block away from them they their neighborhood is r1 and so i i guess i i think this project should happen in an existing r2 um zoning area okay um i'm we're going to go for a little while but then we're going to do a call for the question if we're not going to wrap it up soon councilman thank you sir um just a question from my colleagues who were on council when we passed the udo for the city that rezoned huge swaths of ward one ward two ward three without asking anybody what they thought from single family homes to uh r2 did y'all have any qualms with that when you voted in favor of that mayor that's what you're making sure you're asking if we're asking those of you who just to be clear i'm asking those of you who are on council did you have this same issue where swaths of ward one especially were rezoned from r1 to r2 well the objections of the reward council member warning you about about the negative impacts that would have on our community first of all when that was done um the aerial a looks a lot different than area b then looks very different from area c there's a lot more melon in area one i understand but of something i didn't even say you asked me a question then you didn't let me answer okay and then we're going to call for the kids i'm done okay call up with the question i need a second is there a second second [Music] second by councilmember gruber is a non-debatable motion with a clerk please call the role on the motion called question mayor kaufman yes mayor protein bergen no council member hilts i'm confused are we voting on the re-zone or on the app we're voting for a call for the question and then you then we'll vote on the rezone okay then i need to change my vote to yes okay okay okay and councilmember health you said yes yes to call the question yes okay councilmember mario yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember burzins yes councilmember gardner yes council member coombs yes councilmember marcono yes and councilmember gruber yes the motion passes to call for the question um then the uh public hearing is down closed and i need a motion yes uh city attorney the mayor made public comments earlier about this quasi-judicial matter in which he signaled that he intended to vote no um would he that require him to recuse himself so can you hear me i just want to say in the post i never said it that i was not going to vote for it uh there were items that are critical but never did i state a position so they're they're impossible too two things here this is the ordinance uh the mayor would not vote on the ordinance unless it's to make a break a tie uh the question might be on the side plan for the next one um unless the mayor did vote for this one um what you're asking is essentially an ex parte question and whether or not um if if ex parte's been uh communicated to the rest of the council and to the public uh meaning that the mayor had had discussions outside of or any other council member had discussions outside of this this public hearing then it would just need to be told that discussions have been made in order to cure it there be basically two two issues or two ways to clear it one is uh the mayor would have to vote and state that he's voting on the public hearing tonight and not on anything outside of the public hearing um and two that he could still be uh fair and impartial to uh meaning you know take all the the record into consideration tonight and anything from planning commission and so forth that came through the packet and uh and there is a presumption for council members um of honesty integrity and fairness and impartiality so unless that's been uh that that presumption has been burst and it has to be substantial prejudice is what what case law says substantial prejudice to in order to be able to get through that presumption so um mayor um can i just ask you a couple questions please okay and it you mentioned something about a post uh or about the post um have you had a communication with vanna heights uh neighbors at all okay as far as your right and as far as your vote if you were to have to vote tonight on the ordinance to either make or break a tie i mean i think at this point maybe making a tie because of the vacancy would be about the only situation you could do um if you had to vote um would you vote off what you heard tonight versus anything outside of the hearing well i admit that you know visiting a similar property uh you know certainly did influence me the property at 44th and elizabeth visiting that property seeing his condition before which i was able to to ask the applicant questions about it uh i first of all i think it was important to do that but certainly it did influence me okay and it influenced you but if you were to have to vote would you base your vote on the record tonight yes okay and can you be fair and impartial in this vote if you were slow true on either this okay then i think that the mayor can go ahead and vote if he is uh um required to vote uh councilman thank you i have never seen i've never seen that happen before um that's an odd uh i don't i don't think isn't that up for debate whether or not you're impartial or not i'm not for you know a city attorney to just suddenly absolve somebody of impartiality i i guess i just i'm really shocked to have just seen that transpire like i understand where you're coming from earning money but i have never seen that happen before um and i i mean i guess we could even though we just went through that exercise can't somebody else still come and can't the applicant still come sue the city because of the the posts and the comments that the mayor's made prior to the the meeting like i guess i just want to be transparent about like what like that doesn't yeah it doesn't just like different like um hey i'm not done mayor that that actually does not definitively just make that go away is that is that correct um you know i'll recuse myself from the vote on on um i just i just made that statement where are we at right now um [Music] i need emotion there's not right now there's not going to be discussion until after the motion to get my answer my question answered so as much as you would like for this question i just refused myself there there is it's moot attorney can i get an answer to my question i need an emotion so we can go into the discussion once we're in discussion you can you can do a point of order so i'm not allowed to continue the discussion i need a motion is call for the question now or to the motion and call the question passed it councilmember mccoombs move to approve 16a second okay i haven't recognized you yet it's been history councilmember coombs and who seconded it that was also me councilman discussion and do you want me to so councilman mario to to answer your question um there can always be a lawsuit brought um by either party and you know an issues inexp can be brought up now the mayor there are multiple ways to cure that the mayor did take one of the routes by recusing himself from the boat so recusing himself from the vote is one of the ways to i guess a remedy for any ex parte and that he has done on this um however if he had not and he decided he wanted to vote um it has to again it has to be substantial prejudice denver just went through this on a rezone of a similar caliber for cresmar park called white law versus denver 2017. denver city council where a city council person had 50 50 emails of discussions with uh with the developer and the neighborhood so both everybody was reaching out to the council member it was brought out in the in the lawsuit in denver still i guess prevailed in the lawsuit but can the lawsuit be brought that lawsuit was brought obviously um denver did prevail now it's going to be on a case-by-case basis so you can't say you would prevail but you also can't say you wouldn't um the recusal i think is fine if the mayor decides you're accused mayor councilmember mario so we're we haven't even voted on so 16a he would just make her break a tie that's not the quasi-judicial portion of this conversation correct is that the next vote i recused myself on this one and we'll get we'll we can have that discussion when we get to 16b further discussion mayor councilmember i'm trying to get clarification this is a mood issue right now because i've recused myself uh from the first question i am trying to get clarification on the second question before i vote on the first one is that okay no it's not it is not we are at the first one and you're wasting time and uh further discussion hey is there further discussion to 16a yes i'd like my question answered seeing none with a clerk please call the rule on the adoption of 16a councilmember lawson yes councilmember gruber no councilmember hiltz hold on i'm just reading the title one more time so we're voting on the actual re-zone not the appeal that's correct okay then yes i want to make sure i got that right council member marielle yes even though i didn't get all my questions answered thank you mayor pro-tem bergen no councilmember marcano yes councilmember cruz yes councilmember gardner no and councilmember burzins no no the motion passes five to four to approve ordinance 16a born of order an ordinance didn't we need six votes no councilmember the ordinance needs six votes on the final reading yeah but we need six votes in in two weeks on the final reading it they can pass on five votes on the first greeting i'm sorry it's 20 21.59 okay um a question so um the question city attorney's office so um [Music] the arguments on 16a in terms of my voting is the same on 16b is it not possibly um yeah i mean it's the same it's the same discussion you know it all depends on what was said it would all depends on the discussions had now how that could be let's say their discussion said you know i think this is a great site plan i just you know somebody said i think it was a great side plan but i i'm not free zone well there is an argument that you could recuse yourself from the rezone and say you know the site plan might still be okay to vote on it all depends on what those discussions were had so if somebody were to make an argument that the ex parte you know substantially prejudiced the vote they could say that the mayor should recuse themselves um if the mayor said oh i'm you know i wasn't making uh you know any type of judgment on the site plan then um possibly there's the argument to say go ahead and vote now that would be up to because the mayor you know the council in the discussions with that of course it's ultimately up to the mayor if we get the we get the lawsuit the lawsuit will be the same it'll be the lawsuit on ex parte okay well it was from talking to members of the havana heights owners association with that they gave me the information to look at 48th 44th and elizabeth which influenced my decision my my opinion here and so then that would be how would that be interpreted i mean that's again it's you're given a presumption that of integrity honesty impartiality so that presumption for all council members is a very very strong presumption so because you saw another because you saw another um site doesn't necessarily mean that you've been substantially prejudiced um it'd be the same type of thing that if you're in a store you know and you were in target and you said this target is not kept up a new target came in you said why is this target going to be different this other target there's an argument there that you know you're not prejudiced from however if you feel like you're substantially prejudiced then i mean that the the most extreme remedy is the recusal remedy is putting on on the record that would do this but well i'm going to refuse myself again okay um see uh motion uh i'm sorry well this let's go to the um the public hearing okay public hearing is open on item number 16b and so we'll begin the presentation from the havana heights homeowners yes my name is charles thomas i now want to share my screen and i will make a presentation related and i'm told i could not speak about the rezoning so i've done my best at the last minute to change the slides to where that is not what i'm going to do uh can you still hear me yes yes yes thank you okay uh it is late and i do appreciate you all being here and i certainly appreciate and i know my neighbors do the opportunity for us to speak uh with some slides and back up rather than just having to speak through the phone i will speak to agenda item 16b again my name is charles thomas i live on ironton court and i represent the homeowners and next slide you will see here that uh well i thought my thing would work but however you can see where the mountain view community church is located you see mountain view community homes project you see the signatures of the people who have signed in opposition to rezoning and the site plan all of the people in the surrounding charles we don't see your presentation sorry i don't think you were given permission to share charles you do have permission to share okay sorry yeah we just don't see it so oh okay i have to you go to the top it says file it share that should be a share button yes thank you click on that it should give you some options oh connect to video system correct charles remember on sunday down at the bottom there the uh the oval one that says share and then yeah and then you just pull up that your powerpoint well that's what i have clicked sometimes that doesn't work that's why i mentioned the other one but mayor what's going on i'm councilmember hills thank you well i was just going to say is it possible that maybe we could take a five minute okay break and then that way we can get text tech support in and get everything up on the screen uh the time is now uh 11 23 we will stand at recess until 11 30. why don't we just go to 11 35 we'll stand recess until 11 35. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] staff please proceed public hearings open staff proceed i'm going to have to share a screen or i can just present without a powerpoint if that's easier um i don't wanna i don't wanna undo what we just did but okay give me a second all right good evening again mayor and city council members tonight for your consideration is agenda item 16b a consideration of an appeal of the mountain view community home site plan was adjustment um the site plan with adjustment was approved by the planning and zoning commission on september 22nd 2021 with a vote of four to three and an appeal was filed by an embodying property owner on october 2nd 2021 and that letter of appeal is listed within the agenda packets these site photos show the currently vacant subject property uh from east evans avenue facing south and south juliette street facing west again 13 budding property owners and 22 registered neighborhood organizations were notified of this application comments concerns and issues related to the site plan specifically included include density and parking concerns increased traffic concerns compatibility with the surrounding neighborhood and safety issues this uh site plan or this slide shows a section of the proposed site plan showing the 20 duplex dwelling units with 10 total buildings these duplex units have access on a cul-de-sac configuration similar to the surrounding neighborhood with the exception of lot 5 the southeast corner of the site the proposed off-street parking locations are shown on the site plan in dark gray within either the driveway space or within attached garages two parking spaces are required per dwelling unit and the applicant has provided two spaces per unit in compliance with code requirements for duplex dwellings additional on-street parking is available but limited within the cul-de-sac due to two to the amount of curb cuts and circular cul-de-sac bulb six homes are proposed with a single car garage and one driveway space to meet this two-space requirement the 14 remaining homes do not have an attached or detached garage which is not required in sub-area a and contain two parking spaces within the driveway as illustrated on the site plan and i will note that the applicant in their presentation in the previous item did indicate that some of the changes to the driveway have occurred in between planning commission um on september 22nd and what you're seeing now so this is a little bit outdated but if you have any questions we can maybe pull up the applicant's presentation again code requires design variety durable materials distribution of architectural features and a weighted point system for all proposed development the applicant has provided four elevation plans shown on this slide that illustrate general compliance with those code requirements the elevations provided illustrate building massing the materials architectural features that are consistent with the character of the surrounding neighborhood and the adjustment is requested for lots one through four which are shown in green on that section of the site plan shown on the bottom left of the slide these lots are double fronted lots which are defined by the unified development ordinance as lots in which the front and rear property lines face a street code does not permit double fronted lots on local streets which which south juliet street is classified as the applicant has requested this adjustment to make the development more consistent with the surrounding neighborhood the surrounding neighborhood consists of residential lost access from an internal cul-de-sac with the rear property line double fronting onto another street these neighborhoods were developed and built prior to the limitations on double-fronted lots so the applicant has requested the adjustment to match the existing character of the neighborhood this picture on the slide shows 22 single-family home clusters in cul-de-sac configuration highlighted in yellow the areas highlighted in orange are the 37 double-fronted lots with the cul-de-sacs in the surrounding neighborhood and the criteria for approval for a major adjustment is found in section 146 uh dash 5.4.4.3.3 and staff supports this adjustment request and it was part of the planning and zoning commission approval of the site plan on september 22nd 2021 because they requested adjustment complies with those code criteria in the results of the planning and zoning commission action were to approve with two conditions the site plan with adjustment because the proposal complies with the requirements of section 146 dash 5.4.3 point b 0.2 point c for the following reasons the proposal complies with the standards of the ueo or places plan and other adopted plans the city's existing infrastructure and public improvements have adequate capacity to serve the proposed development the proposal protects and preserves natural areas the proposal expands multimodal connections with adjacent sites and the proposal establishes a high quality of urban design and architecture consistent with the surrounding neighborhood and is compatible with the surrounding uses in terms of size ale and building facade materials those two those two conditions rather that the planning commission put on were the approval of the zoning map amendment from our one low density single family residential district our two medium density district and two the resolution of outstanding technical issues prior to recreation of the site plan and issuance of any building permits and here are the approval criteria for your reference and that concludes that presentation very well uh now we'll go to the appellant for a presentation do you have the presentation in front of you yes now we do yes okay uh try this again uh this my name is charles thomas i'm a retired engineer phd from georgia institute of technology fellow alumni with former president jimmy carter although he's a little older he was a nuclear engineer hey some of you didn't know that uh i've got to change something here it's not i don't mean to do what i have to do just don't come down sorry i apologize folks you may want to press the page down button on your keyboard okay thank you uh this shows a plot showing where the people are that have signed the opposition back in the beginning for the rezoning and also the site plan this area here shows the abutting homeowners are all unanimous there's considerable number of uh projects here that that have been mentioned this is the area we're talking about the mountain view church the uh car lot over here but it is fenced off from the street with a nice large white fence and nice landscaping so it does not interfere the ones mentioned by the councilman this project back here i guess one can argue that is in the neighborhood we all disagree the other one is here which has considerable extra parking compared to what is being proposed here there were about 150 homeowners in our community signed a petition in opposition and i've already said the other some you actually have uh the budding the letter from the homeowners appealing the rezoning so i won't specifically go into any more of that and read you numbers issues with the site plan as proposed we are a residential singley family area at this point and the site plan is not compatible with our neighborhood in our opinion parking traffic and storage are primary concerns habitat asserts that they must have 10 duplex 20 units to offset offset development costs and only six have garages i would darken you back to what has been said that has continued to be asserted no real data or facts have been presented to support this assertion it's just trust us it costs too much we do not consider that adequate this development is being built on donated and free land has been discussed construction financing has not been disclosed we hear a lot of talk about people who work on this and provide sweat equity uh there's some question in that i have heard and questions is whether in these developments people actually do perform work on their own properties i suppose that can be answered later donations grants or borrowed money so just what is paying for it and why can it does it have to be of this size i feel that that should be mandatory before this site plan could be approved this of course is a slide which is now um obsolete in that uh changes have been made to it since i saw this one with some extra uh cram another car in here two or three places and i believe they showed 48 cars one thing that i would like to point out there's something here that i suppose is a drainage pond but that has never been clarified just that something's going to be designed i'll move on to the next that's unrealistic parking scenario i put in 60 cars i even put some more of these in the double tandem parking which i think we all know will rarely happen however this shows you the kind of things just with 60 automobiles that you're going to get and there can be considerably more than that as i believe we can expect all traffic flows out of here onto evans avenue there's going to be reduced visibility which decreases the safety of walkers and drivers i know it latched on to the cul-de-sac idea since it supposedly fits in the neighborhood but cul-de-sacs with these kinds of many homes are very inefficient for parking on a curved surface one other thing i will point out is we're here if you look at traffic coming out on evans if it goes to havana it can only turn right and go north uh so all the traffic that wants to go west or south is going to come down juliet islet and be turning onto a at the bottom of a hill of a 45 mile an hour street and you can only you turn right and maybe usually we get out many people it seems try to turn right into taking their life in their hands or turn left i'm sorry or left on the island for cross traffic you may go down this way all the way to lima and go out and find the traffic light but there's going to be considerable traffic that we have not had in the past um let's go now to the habitat development on 43rd and 44th street columbine that has been mentioned you can see the front quite a lot of automobiles parked in haphazard directions that is most likely what we can expect at this one as well since there's no additional parking provided inside the units or inside the area in the back of these homes you have storage closets which are the kinds of things that will be on these small closet for each one and you see what happens to all of the other stuff people have and in this particular one they're also parked in the back as well as in the front we think that should be appalling to everyone it's also you will notice that the price of these properties appears to be decreasing uh back in february 21 in february was 281 it has now gone down to 250. but the slides are not changing oh okay sorry uh are the slides am i talking too fast and the slides are not changing is that correct okay i'm going to mention this business about the drainage ponds we hear that to go to the city something's going to happen uh we don't know this is a drainage pond whether it will be over here on the church property or there will be a viaduct how it will connect that is considerable concern as you've heard from the people who live back here in addition to the questions who provides maintenance for these areas as well as other common areas including access to the garden and the issue of who is liable for flooding if there's not properly done major concerns that we have with this site plan is the inadequate parking inside the development that will result in excessive parking on evans juliet and possibly into adjacent cul-de-sacs when the church has a an event uh it already fills up the street it's going to be most difficult street parking and interest increased traffic will result in more dangerous exits to evans and joliet for all parties leading to decreased safety for walkers and drivers on street parking will inevitably lead to more vandalism because we won't as it is now we know who walks up and down the street but lots of cars parked you have more cars more targets for vandals and less visibility that applies mostly to the people who are going to buy these homes not us cul-de-sacs provide inefficient parking and if people don't park very carefully trash trucks will not be able to go there the storage limited storage for toys bikes grills so forth we would assert that garages are necessary the fact that there is no hoa whether we like them or not means common area upkeep and maintenance cannot be assured in the long term someone will have to report their neighbors or those the rest of us i suppose will have to call the city as needed and again the liability issues are of concern to several of the folks that are downstream of this some are in conclusions we support as has been stated repeatedly the one in this neighborhood is against building affordable housing we're not against development of the search church site we're not against the habitat for humanity and its activities however this proposed plan does not reflect the existing neighborhood i think that should be completely obvious to everyone it will create unsafe living and driving conditions if r1 single family homes is not going to be required as i guess based on 16a it will not be the number of duplexes must be reduced and garage is added to all units and additional off-street parking we believe is essential for the sector of this neighborhood and i believe there was a so-called hundred-year flood a few years back and the basements flooded then so that still remains a concern i basically have one more slide which doesn't particularly address exactly the site plan but i think it's important at this point and i think i have time to do it we all know and if most of us know about habitat for humanity and habitat for humanity of natural denver currently this is no longer the habitat for humanity that we're all familiar with and many have supported in the past they have merged with the colorado community land trusts and they have a different operations and financial model under this new model homeowners as has been stated do not own the land they cannot sell their property on the open market they turn it back to habitat to find another person that qualifies so and also they do not get full equity in their homes they get whatever they have the contract obligated themselves to in their contracts so hence they lose out on some how much of the appreciation in the market we do not know because that has not been disclosed nor discussed if you go and do some studying on the community land trust models it is not universally accepted as a good process based on reviews available on the internet these owners under this model are not equivalent to fee simple homeowners like those people that have spoken in great favor and how wonderful it has been for their life we by the way would be more than happy to have those people in our navy they are basically renters with home maintenance obligations and costs and limited marginal equity growth potential this has always reminded me of the peanuts cartoon that we all see it periodically where lucy coaxes charlie brown to run and kick the ball but now when you get to sell your house oops the ball's not there with that i thank you for your time and appreciate everyone staying up this late it's pretty late for an 80-year-old man thank you thank you uh questions of the applicant or the appellant doctor thomas i have a question councilmember so you're right georgia tech's a very good school my niece got her phd there in chemical engineering as well so it is a good school the question i have was that we had a council member who said that he spoke with all the people around the um this house or this area and that they were in support so i think there's a disconnect between those people who said who signed the petition saying no and the people that the council members spoke to can you address that i did not say that councilmember gruber and you know that why are you making crap up i will address your name i mean i will recognize you after councilman river is done councilman gruber please proceed well that was my question did the account did your ward council member talk to the people who said that they don't want this here austin board council member you're speaking of the mayor no council member mark connor you can go through and talk to the people i know you are not recognized right now councilmember has the floor i have not spoken to him i'm cannot say who he spoke to um if he was in front of one of the houses out front that had an accident it's possible those persons people are still online i do not know that i have walked the same area he's talking about when he mentions the r2 areas i would suggest he go back and look at the town homes down the way to the to the northeast and see what he thinks now all of those do in fact have garages they have extra parking around there the street asbury still remains fully at 11 o'clock in the morning on monday the place needs painting terribly so it is not something that we look forward to having in the middle of what is really our neighborhood thank you thank you thank you sir i just want to state for the record that i didn't say that i talked to people about this i talked about when i was canvassing going door-to-door in 2019 when i was campaigning this never came up on the doors that i knocked further discussion further discussions so i guess if we could say that council member marcano has not asked his constituents what they feel about this um since that time mayor councilmember i know it's very difficult for you councilmember gruber please be honest and please act in good faith if you can i have folks who've reached out to me about this like as i mentioned when i did speak earlier we've gone over some of their concerns we talked about parking they had to correct them on the this is section 8 housing component and in general encouraged them to work with the developers habitat on the process and like i said i attended those meetings so i'm well aware of what was said and how this process has unfolded thank you further discussion mayor uh customer memorial house oh castleman hills i'm sorry i'll let you have that one um i just wanted to say thank you for putting together this presentation and um for bringing it to council i know this is a deeply personal issue for all involved on all sides um i think seeing that also between council members and i know it's late and you're representing um a lot of people who spoke earlier so i just wanted to say thank you for um you know taking that leadership and doing this presentation seeing none um the public hearing is now closed uh motion mayor i'm sorry we do have individuals in the public call in line okay very well i'm not sure i stand corrected i don't know if the applicant wants to do um another presentation as well um well the applicant already gave a presentation i thought i'm sorry he did he gave his presentation um on the previous item and then i believe for this public hearing he also has the opportunity to give another presentation i thought he did to the applicant i'd like to say a few words but i will keep it brief um oh i'm sorry the applicant hasn't spoken yes please proceed um if i could be enabled to share my screen i just like to pull up one slide um i'd like to just revisit uh this slide right here which is the criteria for major site plan approval um in the udo and there has been a lot of different uh different talking points different um directions this conversation has gone in in the end this is the criteria that you as council have to use to approve this and so i'd like to go through each of these uh the first one being that we comply with all applicable standards you know we as developers we look to the city documents to guide our designs and those documents set out certain standards and this development meets all of those standards and exceeds some of those standards based on feedback we received from neighbors the existing infrastructure is adequate these designs have been reviewed by by city engineers by city planners and where the infrastructure is not adequate habitat on their dollar will be improving that infrastructure that includes the the curbing gutter as i mentioned earlier that entire cul-de-sac area and so we will be ensuring that the infrastructure is adequate it is designed to protect natural areas there's an existing urban garden on this property that is a community asset currently and as as we came into this project and as we partnered with mountain view we committed to keeping that garden and that garden will move a bit to the south but will stay a community garden and a community asset in that neighborhood we improve that multimodal connections throughout the area we are building we are constructing over 500 feet of curb gutter and sidewalk that will allow residents in that neighborhood to safely walk on streets that will safely walk down joliet to get to the park so those new residents with kids can walk out the back door of their house get to that sidewalk and walk down to that park with their kids on a sidewalk not on a street it's compatible with the surrounding uses as we mentioned earlier this is part of the established neighborhood place type and the established neighborhood place type does not just mean single family detached homes it is a mixture of product types it includes single family detached it includes duplex it includes multi-family and it includes an assortment of other uses and we have paid a lot of attention and we have included a lot of feedback in order to incorporate the characteristics of this neighborhood in to make sure that this r2 zoning is compatible with the surrounding uses and it mitigates any adverse impacts on the surrounding area we are providing over the limit of parking we have had a traffic engineer do a study and we have had the city review that study and they found negligible impact on the traffic for the surrounding area and we have designed this in a way that emphasizes homeownership it emphasizes people taking ownership of their yards for their kids to play in and so we feel like the site plan that we are putting forward for your consideration checks all six of these boxes and should be approved tonight thank you are there questions of the staff the appellant or the applicant by members of the council uh the public hearing is now closed mayor we do we have public on the line i'm sorry i did it again okay oh gosh i stand corrected uh are the members of the public that we should speak on this yes very well please receive hello first we have valerie on the line to speak on 16b valerie go ahead good evening my name is valerie marshall and i am in a budding neighbor directly across the street from the church i am opposed to the site plan adopted by mountain view community homes and i realize aurora has a housing shortage a housing shortage especially when it comes to affordable housing and this has become a priority for city council also realized habitat for humanity has become well known for providing housing assistance however i hope that with the urgency to provide affordable housing you will not simply approve developments just because they look good on paper but because they actually work with the existing community and the new residents there are five major reasons why i am opposing this that basically comes down to having a site plan with too many units without enough storage and with too many cost cutting measures to make this work first of all havana heights existing infrastructure and public improvements do not have the adequate capacity right i know you're putting in those sidewalks but if you look at the rest of the neighborhood if you look at the sidewalks going down on the south on joliet between asbury and ireland there are many missing sidewalks if you head east on both evans and warren to lima there are many missing sidewalks as many people have said people and their dogs walk in the street additional 80 people in the neighborhood with cars also is going to pose a major safety hazard habitat did do a traffic study in 2019 there's number two and what i believe they only looked at evans and havana which is a right turn only now because of past accidents and iliff in havana the study did not even look at the three major intersections leading out of havana heights near this development which are eyeless and joliet havana and warren and ilis and lima joliet and nilas have no light and limited sight distance onto ilis warren and havana also have no light and no real ability to make a safe left-hand turn lima and iowa is the only place with a light that also has rodeo drive now this is a patio home community that has an hoa two-car garages it's primarily senior residential group of homes the only way out of their complex is about 50 feet from that intersection that intersection backs up well during um the rush hour on as on iowa and peoria and from from pure excuse me on ilis from peoria to havana every rush hour if you add 20 to 60 people trying to get to work during rush hour that's already going to put a pretty major strain on a congested area and live with these elderly people from being to get in in and out of their homes sure um it would i think the strain would be mitigated the main thing that i'm concerned about too is a storage closet a storage closet if you have to maintain your yard where you're going to put your lawnmower your car maintenance equipment your kids stuff you have no basement most of these don't even have a one-car garage it's physically impossible so if you could at least get some garages in there that would be most helpful and maybe decrease some of that density and and provide a little bit more parking that would be extremely helpful for this neighborhood thank you very much i appreciate your next we have wayne wayne go ahead yes thank you good evening i'm reverend wayne the lost aurora resident minister of social justice at bounty united church thank you mayor and council members for this opportunity to speak in support of the proposed site plan for 20 owner occupied affordable homes for working families last december aurora published the city of aurora housing strategy a bold vision to quote expand the city's effectiveness in ensuring the current and future housing needs of workforce families and residents across the age and income spectrum are men unquote we command you for this vision of what can be for aurora as detailed in the planning and zoning commission's report this project and site plan contributes to several of the goals contained in this report this project is an opportunity for the city to demonstrate that the strategy and goals in this report are more than just mirror words on a piece of paper just as mountain view is part of the havana heights neighborhood and invested in it we recognize our neighbors are also invested in this neighborhood many for years and decades such as us is the place they call home thus it was as important for us that we do everything we can to fit the development into the current neighborhood context that is why when we only had a very high level concept we met with a couple of the immediate neighbors to get their input we then followed that up with a community wide meeting attended by over 100 people followed by a neighborhood walk around on property based on the input we received directly from the havana heights neighborhood neighbors from these four meetings in the fall of 2018 we totally scrapped the original concept that was high density and a mixture that included both multi-family buildings and townhomes and be able to begin working on the site plan that has been presented tonight if we aren't putting affordable housing on vacant and underutilized property where are we going to put it we need affordable throughout all the city all neighborhoods should be accessible and inclusive we can't say we support affordable housing only if we support it elsewhere we need to embrace it everywhere this project meets the requirements in some places exceed from the city and i have to wonder if it's only because it's affordable that people are questioning it searching for red herrings like trash pickup difficulties or flooding the city planning department wouldn't recommend a project if they had looked at these things first this is not a site plan was hastily thrown together over a year was spent in taking all that we had heard and coming up with the site plan that preserve the community's international garden provides the best possible fit to the neighborhood context meets all the city codes and requirements improves the existing infrastructure and provides a minimum number of livable homes that meets the goal of affordable to households earning 80 of the ami during this design process we continue to seek and incorporate to the extent possible input from the neighbors let us help you aurora meet your stated goals that will help and benefit all of aurora i respectively ask for your affirmative vote on this site plan thank you kathy it's your turn go ahead your time has started my name is kathy groff g-r-o-t-h i live at 2108 south joliet court one house away from the property i'm going to discuss this because mayor kaufman discussed it uh when he recused himself from the site plan there is no overall homeowners association in havana heights the steering committee which is registered did not have an election they only represent themselves i don't know where all the other neighborhoods came from but we used to have a neighborhood association that everybody was welcomed in because i served on it for more than 15 years and the neighbors the rich neighbors said no we don't want anybody telling us what to do the people that mr kaufman saw and talked to claimed to do something they didn't do which was to represent everybody i'd also like to talk about parking it's a kind of question is are city streets something that belong to the city and is parking on city streets allowed or not allowed because i think it's allowed and i think that if any private homeowner can say that some other private homeowner can't park on the street we're all going to get a lot of tickets i don't live i don't live as far from the proposed development as david muramoto does and he has parked his truck and trailer on joliet street since he bought the house everybody does it you just are after these people because parking is a handy stalking horse just just something to throw up when you don't have any other good arguments and as far as as sidewalks go there's sidewalks on both sides where i live and people still walk their dogs in the street it's what people do the sidewalks don't make any difference i just keep thinking that city council and especially all of these neighbors i've been here for since 1979 when the streets were dirt don't tell me about changing the character of the neighborhood they did i have more to gain in property values than any other they're not in this because they love havana they're not they don't love the people that would come and stay here they they're not in this because they love habitat for humanity they're not in this because they love affordable housing they think that the people that come and live in these houses are going to prove that we're all the same and that's scary stuff i just don't understand why you keep thinking that that there should be all this control of people who are just like us kathy and either neighbors are involved the neighbors that were involved never intended to vote yes after they got the changes they wanted thank you hi zach you're next go ahead thank you uh mr mayor and council members for your time this evening my name is zach zaslow i'm the director of government affairs for children's hospital colorado so my job in that role is to improve child health and when possible try to keep kids out of the hospital through improving and influencing public policy as part of children's hospital colorado's long-term commitment to providing pediatric care to kids in aurora in addition to our anti-campus location that you're all familiar with we opened a new care site in 2019 it's our health pavilion location it's an ethan potomac in one of aurora's zip codes with the greatest health disparities and the goal of that location is to work to address the whole picture of child health for aurora kids this approach to care is supported by research which demonstrates the outsized role that social determinants play in health outcomes for all of us but in particular for young children in fact only 20 percent of health depends on clinical care the other 80 depends on social determinants like income and housing the research uh demonstrates that quality and affordable housing can improve child health and offer a better and brighter future for aurora kids through educational and economic opportunities in 2020 our community health navigators and family navigators assisted 1251 families with housing up from 738 in 2019 and we will serve even more in 2021. these are the very aurora families that could benefit from this proposal not only would this proposal have the potential to support some of the families we serve and some of the children that we serve it would also support our essential health care workforce that has been on the front line during the kova 19 pandemic we are as you know proudly based in aurora and children's colorado has over 12 000 team members to serve our mission of improving child health and as you know aurora is amid a very serious affordable housing crisis where one in three aurora households are housing cost burdened many of our central workers cannot afford to live in the communities they serve and tonight you have an opportunity to do something about it so children's hospital colorado and i ask you to vote yes on this proposal from habitat for humanity and thank you for your time hi maria you're next go ahead so um again this is maria sepulveda and i'll keep my comments brief on the habitat for humanity metro denver um i appreciate the opportunity to speak again on the site plan i just want to re-emphasize the fact that habitat worked closely in analyzing each and every one of the site plan approval criteria as corey showed in his presentation um we responded to each change required by the sitting planning department the city planning department reviewed and is now recommending approval of the site plan because as it addressed sidewalks drainage parking and traffic including we increased the parking above what is required in the in the criteria and i think it's also important that as for the the traffic study again that topic study was based on a higher number of residents than is currently being proposed here and that study showed that those traffic flows were to be incident or insignificant so i just want to reiterate the fact that habitat has been extremely responsive not only to [Music] design elements you know working to make uh the footprints match the neighborhood and architecturally match but but uh answer and respond to each technical requirement of the city um and then i just have to again just because some statements were made again in the presentation around equity building for homeowners home buyers those who buy these homes will earn equity um and in fact families who own habitat homes in both models whether it's under a clt model or other habitat models they do earn returns on their investments each year which cannot happen in a rental situation and again i will reiterate that homeowners can sell their homes on the open market again these are some of the only affordable homes for essential workers in our community and again finally we have been extremely thoughtful and responsive and reviewing the city's criteria around site plans they are embedded throughout our plan and we ask again for you to approve habitats the proposed site plan thank you and that completes public comments for agenda item 16b tonight are there any council members who wish to question the staff the applicant or the appellant saying none a motion is in order there councilman so wait sorry actually can i ask are we approving the site plan or are we approving the appeal of the site plan sorry i have to look back it's the appeal let me refer to that but i believe it's appeal of the site plan is it not so an affirmative vote would be appealing the site plan the approval of the site plan is that correct uh city attorney's office no the appeal would actually be um to just bring the cycle plan to you you would decide as a council body if you're going to approve the side plan modify the skype planner or uh deny the site's name i'm sorry deal is there's two portions of the appeal first of all it's the actual substance of the site the second one was you can do the appeal on whether or not the planning commission if somebody came and said the planning commission used the wrong criteria it could also be on i don't think that's the i don't think that's what everybody's alleging they're they're actually appealing because they are asking you to make final decision on the site plan okay so uh so an affirmative so uh motion what a motion to support the appeal well the motion would be to approve the side plan or deny itself approve the sightline or deny this okay so we just have one vote that we need mayor just one vote correct okay councilmember comes uh move to uh uphold the decision of the planning and zoning commission to approve the site uh it's been it's been moved to approve the cycle and uh is there a second second that's been moved by councilwoman secretary councilmember mcconnell to approve the site plan um discussion mayor um how can we approve a site plan if it's not compatible with r1 zoning it's i think they're separate uh city attorney answered that um it would be uh contingent upon the r1 zoning so that's how we always do side plans set plans i always come at least a planning commission with the rezone it's contingent upon that reason we basically said no to the reason and i know it has to come back but okay you guys but i just want to make sure uh city attorney's office says the coombs motion is in order the way she's expressed it yeah that's fine that uh we're voting in the affirmative they were voting to approve the site plan correct okay okay who's motion is to approve the site plan so in effect to uphold the uh planning commission's decision okay uh further discussion mayor uh council articles so i know that a lot of times we have conversations as a body about the cost of development and that we need to do everything that we can to ensure that we have adequate housing stock by making sure that we are not adding to the cost of development or that we're taking into consideration the cost of development what we have before us is a site plan regarding which the developers have said we can provide this affordable housing it's affordable for sale housing not for rent housing and what we need is your support for this site plan to be able to make it affordable in consideration of those costs of development so i would just ask my colleagues to be consistent with the sorts of values and commentary that are regularly made about development in our city when looking at affordable housing which i believe everyone understands and agrees we so direly need thank you further discussion we're seeing no further discussion then uh the question before us is the adoption of the uh councilmember can't remember hustle's trying to get your attention oh cancel my rails i'm sorry thank you um so uh just a couple of quick thoughts uh you know two weeks ago i just remember getting berated for wanting to vote um in opposition of the planning and zoning commission because they are the body that's appointed to ensure technical compliance and to ensure that we are not politicizing um a technical compliance through the planning and zoning commission and so it's just going to be interesting to see if that consistency um come through now that things have um changed in terms of where that affordability is i think this is you know i'm disappointed i think in a lot of the conversation tonight because this is really a conversation about whether or not we're going to provide opportunity to people to get into homeownership and then also on the flip side um change the makeup in a neighborhood where people have maybe been for a lot of years and so it's very personal on both sides and i think you know it's i just wish we could have a little bit more compassion for for the people on both sides of this because um you know it's just a deeply a deeply personal issue when we're talking about these two things that said i do support um the site plan just like i did the rezone but you know i do want to recognize that it's not i think easy um for most people on council to to listen to this testimony and get through that so hopefully um when this comes back a second time because i'm sure the reason's already coming back i'm guessing that we'll probably be in a similar space that um maybe we can just kind of refocus on the fact that this is so personal for everyone involved and so us getting into political tit for tats just isn't um it's not very compassionate to the people who are on the other side so thank you further discussion i'm sorry is somebody want to be recognized yes marcano uh councilman thank you sir yeah i just want to state that we've had a lot of conversations around affordable housing and homelessness as a body uh those two issues are very closely intertwined this is a rare opportunity for us to actually do something to house people without even having to use public dollars to do it which i think is a godsend um i want to thank mountain view uh for giving up their land basically to you know even make this a possibility um i'm very grateful to them for that and you know that's part of the yes and god's backyard movement you've already heard many of the pastors from the george call in and explain why they're supportive of this because it is the church's mission and it's just the right thing to do as decent human beings uh so i'm hoping that y'all can find it in your hearts to actually do what i think you all know is the right thing and house people because if we don't house people they're going to end up homeless and we're just going to have ourselves to blame after a certain point because we're being given opportunities just like this to address the issue so let's do the right thing further discussion uh council member mario uh thank you did we settle the question on if you're recusing yourself for this vote as well you know if you'd been listening at all you would understand that so uh yes i refused myself that was okay rude yes sir no i'm not gonna you know you're you know i'm just not gonna go there okay the question uh before us uh is the adoption i can't even item 16 b agrees uh with the clerk please call the roll council member health yes uh council member marcano yes that's a member of uber no it's not in compliance with r1 council member gardner nope council member crooms yes mayor pro-tem bergen no councilmember mario yes because it's in compliance with the process that the planning and zoning commission followed council member lawson yes and council member berzins now the item passes the motion passes of five votes in the affirmative and for no votes the time is now 12 27 we will stand in recess until uh 12 32 council is down recess [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] uh the regular meeting of the aurora city council is now back in order back in session uh please read the title to item number 17a item 17a is ordinance 2021-42 an ordinance annexing a parcel of land located in the southeast quarter of section 17 township three south range 64 west of the sixth principal meridian county of adams state of colorado 157.841 acres uh bring a presentation by staff yes uh good good morning at this point mayor members of council uh we again have several items on the agenda tonight associated with the transport colorado annexation tonight's agenda is the third in that three-step council process for annexations in which city council considers the annexation and initial zoning ordinances on final reading and the annexation agreement is presented to city council for consideration the initial zoning follows the city's comprehensive plan and will be zoned i2 industrial district to be detailed further by the planning department during the upcoming presentations for those items um the item before you is transport number one this parcel of land is roughly 157 acre parcel part of the transport colorado master plan generally located at the northeast corner of 48th avenue and in bowdoin road per the attached vicinity map city council made a finding of substantial compliance regarding this annexation on august 23 2021 and approve the finding of fact resolution and ordinance on first reading on october 11th 2021. uh this first this parcel falls within the city's annexation boundary and meets the requirements for annexation including contiguity the parcel will be integrated in the improved master plan and again this item is the second reading of the annexation ordinance i'll note we have outside representatives available to assist with any questions on these items but they are not planning on making a separate presentation um i'm happy to answer any questions you may have as well thank you um jacob i assume your um your remarks apply to 17a through 17h um generally the first part of my remarks do um but we do need to um the the individual parcels have separate details that we'll need to um put into the record okay uh with the clerk please read the title to um um obviously you've already read the title i think to 17a um motion uh on 17a mayor question uh um um so did he did he just say we cannot we have to vote on each one separately but do we have to read each one i think we have to read the title i don't think he has to brief on each one oh okay thank you mayor okay so um i just motioned to approve 17a uh it's removed by councilwoman gardner said come by ruben second by councilman grover to approve item number 17. discussion see another discussion the question is the adoption of uh item number 17a where the clerk please call the roll council member mario yes it is hard to vote and uh verbally vote and vote online at the same time councilmember lawson yes councilmember hiltz yes councilmember marcano yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember persians yeah councilmember gardner yes council member muriel i'm sorry mayor pro-tem bergen yes councilmember gruber yes the motion passes to approve ordinance 2021-42 please read the title item number 17b item 17 b is ordinance 2021-43 an ordinance of the city council of the city of aurora colorado zoning 157 acres of land more or less generally located east of amboden road between east 56th avenue avenue and east 48th avenue within the county of adams state of colorado to industrial district and amending the zoning map accordingly promotion clear councilworks move to approve 17b it's removed uh by councilwoman coombs uh and second bye i'm sorry awesome uh second by council member lost him to approve item number 17b um discussion see no discussion with the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of item number 17b councilmember marcano yes councilmember burzens yes councilmember lawson yes councilman mcgruber yesterday mayor protembergen yes councilmember hiltz councilmember mario yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember coombs yes the motion passes to appropriateness 2021-43 for glory now please read the title title number 17c item 17c is ordinance 2021-44 an ordinance annexing a parcel of land located in the east half of section 20 and the east half of section 29 township 3 south range 20 64 west of the sixth principal meridian county of adam state of colorado transport colorado to 642.914 acres motion thank you sir move to approve 17c uh it's removed uh by councilmember mcconnell second by partner uh councilman gardner to approve on the number 17 c discussion they're saying no especially when the club please call the roll on the adoption by number 17 c councilman mcgruber yes councilmember burrisons yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember meadow yes mayor pro-tem bergen yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember hiltz yes and councilmember marcano yes the motion passes to approve ordinance 20 21 44. vote now please read the title item number 17 d item 17 d is ordinance 20 21 45 an order to the city council of the city of aurora colorado zoning 642 acres of land more or less generally located east of imbadan road between the east 48th avenue and the union pacific railroad right-of-way within the county of adams state of colorado to industrial district amending the zoning map accordingly transport initial zoning two uh motion mayor dave gruber uh councilmember move to approve 17d move by councilmember second one by burst ends catch councilmembers to approve on number 17d discussion seeing no discussion with the clerk please call the role on the adoption of item number 17d councilmember gardner yes councilmember hiltz yes councilmember marcano yes councilmember mario yes councilmember coos yes sponsor mcgruber yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember burzens yes mayor pro tim perkin yes the motion passes to prove ordinance 20 21 45. well now please read the title number 17 item 17 e is ordinance 20 21 46 an ordinance annexing a parcel of land located in the east half of section 21 and a part of the west half of section 22 township three south range 64 west of the sixth peninsula principal meridian county of adams state of colorado transport colorado three 636.174 acres motion there because it goes move to approve 17e move by councilmember croom second by morgan uh may every time bergen to approve on number 17e uh discussion uh seeing no discussion on the question before this is the adoption of number 17 to you with clark police call the role councilmember grouper yes councilmember marcano yes mayor pro tim bergen yes thank you councilmember hiltz yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember persians yes the motion passes to approve ordinance 20 21 46. we'll go right now please read the talent item number 17 f item 17 f is ordinance 2021-47 ordinance of the city council of the city of aurora colorado zoning 636 acres of land more or less generally located between the quail red road alignment in manila road between east 48th avenue in the 38th alignment within the county of adams state of colorado to industrial district admitting the zoning map accordingly transport initial zoning three uh motion bearer motion to approve 17f move by councilmember before it says the adoption of number 17 now for globe please call the roll councilmember yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember marcano yes mayor parton bergen yes councilmember coombs yes councilman mcgruber yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember hiltz yes and councilmember muriel yes the motion passes to approve ordinance 2021-47 now please read the title item number 17g item 17g is consideration of a consolidated amended and restated annexation agreement between the city of aurora colorado western transport llc and rancho cotella properties llp for the transport colorado logistics and commerce park motion mayor dave gruben councilmember move to approve 17g over my councilman yes go do i vote on this i believe so it's an approval of an annexation agreement so it's not important it's a resolution it would be a emotional yes councilmember hiltz yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember gardner yes councilmember lawson yes council member berzins yes councilmember marcano yes mayor pro-tem bergen yes mario yes councilmember gruber yes the motion passes to approve item 17g okay now please read the title item number 17h item 17h is ordinance 2021-58 introduction of the ordinance and a public hearing for approving a consolidated amended and restated intergovernmental agreement invested rights development agreement between the city of aurora colorado western transport llc rancho coachella properties lp and transport metropolitan district one containing provisions for a vested property right pursuant to article 68 of title 24 crs for the transport colorado logistics and commerce park public hearing is now open does the applicant have a presentation i'm sorry as the staff have a presentation mayor i can just give a brief overview um so this is corresponding to the amendment and restatement of the annexation agreement in conjunction with the annexation transport is pursuing an amendment to the existing development agreement to consolidate agreements in conjunction with both annexation and the previously approved interim facilities agreement um staff had recommended that it's particularly on the annexation agreement that was just passed that was better to consolidate these into an one amended and restated annexation agreement and that's what we're doing with the development agreement as well um the reason this is an ordinance is because of the vesting and that does follow city vesting policy um i laid out the salient points in the commentary and i'll just provide some brief detail as to the proposed re-establishment of the vested rights due to the scale and location of the project the vesting terms being proposed follow the city's policy in conjunction with the approved 2007 agreement that includes land use density and intensity of uses in the master plan for initial period of 20 years with potential extensions for two additional 15-year periods based on completion of the following triggers up to a total of 50-year vast investing the first 15-year extension is allowed if the initial public improvements required to be constructed pursuant to the first fdp or master plan sub-area public improvements plan have been completed and placed into operation the second 15-year extension is allowable if certificates of occupancy have been issued for at least five million square feet of development um i'll note that as i mentioned that the item before use an ordinance due to that vesting so i'm happy to answer any further questions uh question is the staff well i'm sorry is the applicant does the applicant wish to speak we do have the applicant available muncie i don't know if you had anything else to add there or anybody from transport happy to answer any questions but do not wish to belabor the point here so no co no no presentation per se is there any ways or any one from the public who wishes to speak there's nobody in the line uh are there questions from council members to uh staff or the applicant i have a question mayor um so on the vesting rights if they don't meet um the development requirements then they would forfeit their vesting it just would not allow to be able to be extended so there's those three triggers so it essentially it would essentially be the uh initial period of 20 years unless that trigger is met to go the 35 or the 50. okay thank you uh further questions discussions i was saying knows what the questions are discussion and the question before us uh oh public hearing is down close uh um a motion mayor dave ruber cuts over move to approve 17h um it's been removed by councilmember grover uh and seconded by gardner councilman gardner to prove number 17h and discussions i see no special questions before this is the adoption of vitamin 17h please call the roll mayor pro tim bergen yes remember versions yes councilmember lawson yes councilmember americano council member mario yes councilmember hiltz yes councilmember gruber yes councilmember gardner yes and councilmember coombs yes the motion passes to approve ordnance 20 21 58. i'm number 19 a consideration to reappoint one member to the citizens advisory committee for housing and community development a motion mayor that's our coach um move to reappoint charlene wisher howard to the citizens advisory committee on housing and community development sector by second persons uh second like councilman mcconnell um uh discussion i was saying now the question for force is the adoption of lionel number 19 hey with clark please call the rule mayor kaufman yes please council member persians yes councilmember lawson yes council member marcano yes councilman mcgruber yes council member hilts yes mayor protembergen councilmember gardner yes councilmember coombs yes councilmember mario yes the motion passes to report charlene howard to the citizens advisory committee for housing and community development uh 19b consideration to appoint one a member to the election commission uh customer mcconnell thank you sir move to appoint arnie schultz to the election commission councilwoman was taken by [Music] move to appoint deborah johnson second she used to be our clerk and recorder for the whole city oh okay um a city attorney how do i do uh both motions that's it oh you're do that as a substitute you need to offer that as a substitute uh councilman roses okay thank you i moved uh a substitute motion to appoint denver johnson aurora clerk and recorder and the denver corner okay we've been moved by uh council member version second invite oregon uh memphis uh discussion on the substitute motion mayor uh mayor jim i believe um it the election commission uh strongly supported the appointment of deborah johnson also very well further discussion here i don't want to knock anyone's qualifications but in my interaction with the election commission it's my belief that i think we need to get some new blood on there i think that the folks who are there are a little uh too tight-knit and are very resistant to uh things that the community wants to see change so further discussions yeah could i ask you a question i don't know what you're talking about deborah hasn't been on aurora for a long time she's been a member and she was the denver clerk and recorder i i understand that national special aurora further discussion uh saying the question of course is um the um versus motion uh for deborah johnson um is there further discussion let's say no clear please call the role mayor kaufman yes councilmember hiltz this is on the amendment right no councilmember gardner yes councilmember berzins yes mayor pro-tem bergen yes councilmember coombs no councilmember gruber yes councilmember mario no councilmember lawson yes and councilmember marcano the motion passes to a appoint deborah johnson to the election commission does that require six votes it's a motion so it's right now we have six votes in the affirmative and four in the negative oh we have six i'm sorry okay okay um let's see um reports uh no report by the mayor um councilmember lawson yeah i know it's like so i'll just give my uh pfizer report and uh reimagine archery report i'll forward those to council but i just wanted to um say is there any you know we've had this past weekend and even past this we've had a lot of youth who have been um from you know just from gun violence and i just wanted to know just wanted to ask if council first give condolences to those families but also to just see if we could just give just a slight moment of silence for those those victims because i think it's really important we have a public health crisis and this weekend was surpassed a lot of deaths that should not have happened so i just would like to ask if council would just give just a few just a minute of just moment of silence for those victims so thank you mayor council i really do appreciate that and um i just want to just say uh today uh the 18th judicial opened up their diversion um counseling their diversion office today myself mayor kaufman and judge day were there amongst other leaders in the community so i'm really glad that they're here in aurora they're in ward 4. they're at 2993 south peoria street suite 150 so it's a great addition um to our community and i hope with our program that we can work together in collaboration so um that's my report for this morning thank you uh council member i want to thank amazon and um candy they had a program with rural public schools where they gave murphy creek sixth grade class each of them skateboard and brought in some professional skateboarders uh to to teach them how to ride uh it was a delight watching children uh many of which of them had never held a wrench before uh build these skateboards so i want to thank amazon for that and candidate for okay uh councilmember hills thank you um saturday i went to the faith and blue event it was part of several events i ran into the mayor while i was there and that was a really great event really good turnout uh you know free food booths canines um they had like a hockey arena from the avalanche um set up for for people to play in and lots of fun um check my son he just yelled that he wanted to pet the doggies more um that's that's what he was most interested in was the dogs um but it was a really a really cool event and good for the community and i think to get out and especially bring together some folks who don't we don't often see um you know working working together in such a large public space like that so i think it was really great to be able to bring kind of all different parts of our community together and then also um they unveiled their new like game day track where you can play video games with officers and just kind of sit on a couch and play video games and draw on it and i know a lot of work went into that um and so just a really good event all around and also too so customer gardener no report customer mario thanks mayor um i was uh sad to have missed the that event i've been working a lot lately uh but i did get an opportunity to stop by the um fall fest out in the fletcher plaza in the district which is really awesome as well so love to see continued programming um in the district my town hall for this month is this thursday 6 to 7 30 at moorhead we're still going to do a hybrid meeting model um back to basics we won't have the same city council or aurora tv support like we did last time uh but i think they're they're trying to work out the kinks for more permanent like hybrid um meetings for 2022. so i will still take that as a win since i've been wanting that since i first got on council and covey just kind of presented the opportunity to do so um and then uh you know since i have the opportunity uh to to speak without getting cut off just want to just express my frustration not being able to ask simple questions get answers to uh city processes without being yelled over um i i learned a very hard lesson today about the difference between forced authority uh and earned respect from our mayor so i just wanted to share that while i had the platform and was not cut off thanks team uh councilmembers no report cousin mcconnell thank you mayor uh so i want to echo member lawson's sentiments and congratulations to d.a kellner's office for opening the new uh diversion counseling program office i regret that i was not able to attend earlier today i had a unexpected medical issue come up but as you can see i survived um i also want to let folks know that we have a virtual public meeting about the nine-mile bridge today at 6 30 pm uh and you can head over to engage aurora.org to find the link to that meeting and i also wanted to encourage folks to vote if they already haven't i think well i haven't checked since we've been in our meetings tonight but as of yesterday i think we had a five percent turnout for arapahoe county and that's extremely low and off your elections typically have very low turnout um but as you all can tell we deal with very important things that impact our daily lives here so in 2019 we had to turn out at about 38 in 2017 it was around 25 last year though we had turned out at 80 percent over 80 so my challenge to all of you is to beat the 2019 turnout numbers get your ballots and if you already haven't and finally uh we are not having ward 4 meetings in november or december this year but we will be back at the stampede on thursday january 13th at 6 30. uh we're gonna try to keep a hybrid option um working with staff to see what equipment we're able to utilize for that and we're gonna have a new council and a whole lot of work to discuss so i'm very excited to see y'all at the stampede in january customer comments um my ward meeting will be on the first wednesday so i believe that's the third of november at 6 00 pm at heather gardens that'll be our last award meeting of the year um and i will save the rest of my report for when it's not super late on my boards uh mail for town thank you mayor um e-470 was basically cable rail installation and then the igas that we discussed tonight with gartreal road i attended the open house at dia on the 14th of october and we were able to meet with the new ceo of the airport very interesting discussion about the future of the airport and then last week i attended the graduation ceremony for the police academy congratulations to that class and then um also on friday attended the benson hotel announcement on the anschutz campus and truthfully had not been on the back side of the medical center and i was really uh surprised and impressed with um all the new the new apartments and the there's a new restaurant there as well as um coffee shop and and so forth so um it was it was a very uh great event and then lastly um for those of you that have pets i lost our pet dog last week and we used lap of love hospice and they were great i'm very sorry okay um the public invited me heard there is one person on the line hi dee your time starts you are welcome to speak on public invited to be heard thank you go ahead uh yes hi hi um yeah i've um wanted to address the um mayor i suppose um i had a question and i think after you know hearing some of the back and forth on item 16 a and b i don't know that this is really going to resonate and probably will fall on deaf ears but i was just kind of wondering as a citizen of aurora why is the aurora municipal center closed to the public um you know and why are your city council meetings still virtual i assume that it's because of the covet 19 pandemic you know if that is the case i guess the the question um at hand is why do you not have a city uh mandate for covid 19 vaccination for your employees much like how denver has you know if closing the aurora municipal center and not having public household meetings is due to you know the health and safety of um council and citizens of aurora then you know not having a mandate doesn't really go hand in hand with that um you know another concern i think as well is you know the public um safety officers such as police and fire uh you know not having a vaccine mandate as well they interface with the public quite often you know fire rescue they're paramedic they respond to nursing homes which are very high risk population and it's kind of concerning if they cannot be assured that the paramedics and police officers who are interfacing with them whether they're vaccinated or not so i would say that the messaging with having the aurora municipal center closed for what approximately 19 months and then not having a city kova 19 vaccine mandate the messaging is quite inconsistent so you know i think it speaks volumes about our city leadership it makes me question the leadership judgment and commitment to the citizens that they report to and um at this stage you know i mean we're almost two years into this pandemic so i think it's time to step up do the right thing make our community safer and you know you should implement a mandatory covet 19 vaccine mandate for all city employees so this is something you should consider um being on the line for five hours waiting to speak i did notice that it looked like mayor coffman has a animal in his office and i don't know if that's a registered service animal or if it's just an emotional support animal but if that's the case the latter i would assume that that means that all other city employees are welcome to bring their emotional support pets to the building as well so that was just something i kind of wanted to point out i saw i saw that a couple times while i you know waited in the queue to call so thank you for your time well with that uh meeting adjourned thanks everybody thank you [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you