[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] or city council for Monday, June 23rd, 2025. Let's call to order. Would the clerk please call the role? Mayor Kaufman here. Council member Bergen here. Council member Kums, present. Council member Gardner, Council Member Hancock, Council Member Dinsky, Council Member Cassab here, Council Member Lawson here, Council Member Medina here, Council Member Mario Mayor Pro Tim Sunberg here. There are no uh mayor's updates. Um are there any issue updates? Seeing none, uh is there any objection to moving the consent calendar item number 2A through 2H um forward? Seeing none in the consent calendar, item number 2 A to 2 H. We'll move forward. Um item number 3A. Um Council Member Diski. Uh if not, Council Member Diski then Trevor Vaughn. Thank you. Trevor Vaughn, manager of licensing. Uh this ordinance is sponsored by Council Member Jerinsky. uh to update our cabaret license code. Uh the cabaret license is a license that uh is an additional right now to liquor license businesses that have a dance floor. Um it's a common type of license that uh a lot of jurisdictions have to kind of address the higher intensity uses that come around with the late night entertainment uses particularly when they're connected to alcohol. And uh the modifications that are being done by this ordinance really have two two goals uh two separate goals. Um the first one is creation of an open floor cabaret license for places that have standing room only. Uh so this allows uh locations that want to have more of a concert venue. That's often very common with concert venues where they only have uh you know they'll have a section that's standing room only. Um currently our cabaret code does not allow for that. And so this uh creates a modification for that for for venues uh that uh now could could do that um thus making it more attractive uh for concert type venues. Uh second uh different objective of this is inclusion of event centers that have liquor consumption but they're not required to have a liquor license and there's been some issues around those event centers that uh this ordinance is attempting to address. Uh the open floor cabaret license uh is going to be available uh it's going to be a new class of that cabaret license going to be available for facilities that have more than 250 patrons. Um that's uh that figure comes from the the national fire code in regards to when crowd control is needed. uh they're going to need to create a plan uh that uh obtains fire department approval for crowd control so we can make sure that uh there's um reduces any risk of crowd crush or you know significant bad incidents that we've seen about in the the news and have happened in other places and try to prevent those from happening here um and make sure that we're having best practices through the national fire code. So, we'll be looking at those plans and expecting the the businesses to to follow them. Along with that, adjusting some of the practices that we've seen that have been problematic, um, including not having glass bottles when they're operating as that standing room only uh, facility. You know, those glass bottles can become projectiles and and have been. So, trying to address that, addressing bottle service and bottle buckets unless the the patrons are provided a table to sit. I've seen cases where somebody's not sitting and they'll have this this bucket of bottles that'll have six bottles in it. It will be placed on the floor, become a trip hazard. Um and then um also addressing uh bottle service uh which is kind of that VIP service where uh patrons are provided a full bottle of alcohol usually with VIP seating um and trying to make sure that that doesn't lead to over service of alcohol which we've seen in a number of cases and so adding some requirements around that bottle service if it is provided uh that it be limited to 750 milliliters and three or more patrons and having adequate staff there to monitor that. And then also adding a requirement for all cabarets to have 14 days video surveillance. Um and turn that over to law enforcement. Um event centers. Uh this is the second objective of this ordinance. Um event centers that have no liquor license but where liquor is consumed. Um and also would have dancing. Uh so we think there's about 10 event centers that would then be required to obtain this license. Um and it provides more oversight over them. Uh currently there's no liquor license so there's no oversight in that manner. Um and uh we have had some issues which I'll kind of cover here. Uh so we can have bar nightclub or worse due to lack of accountability. We we do have noise issues oftentimes with these with some of the neighbors or um you know issues with overconumption, violence and DUIs. And in 2024 we attributed four shootings at event centers just in this past year. Um, a number of these have had illegal events and and part of the issue we have is that the event center will uh rent out to parties and they'll kind of trust what they've been told, you know, and say, "Oh, yeah, it was birthday party." But not verify what's going on in there and not really take an active role in what's happening. Um, and really provides an opportunity for some bad actors to just rent that place out for a night uh without any accountability. So, that's what we're looking for here. Um, and then there was that big story about the Colorado Springs Underground nightclub and that was uh was an event center. Very similar circumstance. It was set up in the day. Looked like a wedding venue, but was being used as an underground nightclub. And we've seen similar incidents not only here in Aurora, uh, which was part of those shootings, but also I know it's been an issue around the metro area and actually around the country as well of making sure to stay on top of those. Um this is a new story about one this past year uh where we had a shooting a homicide um at an event center and uh what had happened here is uh you the person that had been given the keys to the event center to to take a share of the income was not really verifying what was happening at it. We were having concert type events there um and kind of an underground nightclub. Uh similarly this is another event center over the past year. The the advertisement actually doesn't line up at the news story. I couldn't find an advertisement for the event that night, but very similar situation. Uh, you know, the place had been written out said it was a birthday party, uh, but it was a concert with security and and door charges and there ended up being a shooting at 2:45 a.m. there. So, trying to trying to get that oversight. There was no video um surveillance at this event, too, and and provided some challenges for law enforcement in uh solving that issue. Um, this one was a very large issue from a few years ago. Uh this was at Mississippi and Poria uh with the 100 rounds that were fired at this event. This was an event center. The event center was actually owned by a church um and uh had that shooting. And if you look at the flyer for this event, it was scheduled from midnight to 5:00 a.m. Uh this was just basically a fly by night entity that was allowed to then use that facility and run this party. Um and uh the characters behind that entity weren't weren't uh probably a very good moral character when we taken a look at the background in them. Um just highlighting this was the one in Colorado Springs simply I just notate that because it had received media attention and and just kind of a similar circumstance. So as I mentioned approximately 10 to get licensed and this would be when alcohol consumption is permitted and dancing is permitted. Um, we'll have an exemption in here if the event is secondary and it already has a liquor permit. So, if you have a facility like the Aurora Municipal Center where you obtain a either a special event permit or an alcohol beverage festival permit, we still have oversight of that event because it has a permit. Uh, so that facility isn't going to have to get this cabaret license. This is just for those full-time event center operations. So, um, it's going to require those private event centers to hire a liquor license caterer, assuming that that license gets set up. It needs some more work at the state legislature. It's in it's currently in code, but uh, when they they created it last year, it needed still needed funding um, and some code cleanup, and we expect that to get taken care of this session. And uh you know that that uh assuming that caterers get a license that helps separate now um the physical premise control and the alcohol uh responsibility service. Um because caterers aren't going to have really knowledge or or background in the facility itself. Uh but they can help responsibility over that alcohol service rather than you know a cousin or an uncle or somebody just bringing in the alcohol. Um and we us having over service issues. So um having that uh assuming that when that license gets set up that's why it's asterricked or you know in the meantime or as an alternative uh these centers having an improved alcohol service plan for late night events including having somebody that has responsible um service training uh so that it it's professional and controlled um and dealing with any delotterious impacts to the neighborhood noise and and other things very similar those are requirements of liquor licensed businesses that they don't impact the neighbors and and this is would be then extending that to the event center operator, having the event center operators have be good moral character much like a liquor licency um and monitoring those events with the liquor code. With that, um that's the end of my presentation. Uh questions for staff. Mayor. Yeah, I'm sorry. Who is that? Bergen. Oh, Council Bergen. Um hey Trevor, it sounds good. um what are the consequences um for you know impacts to the neighborhood or um not having the liquor license any of these um issues. What would be the consequence? Well, this would now add a consequence where uh first of all they need to have a license and then if they didn't follow those rules of the license they could lose that license and lose that ability to operate um that event center or you know basically says these things you're doing is a privilege now. So if you have those impacts, we can take it away. Okay. But they would only lose a future license. I'm Are there not any consequences for impacts that would happen? Like do they not get cited for anything besides just losing their license? Yeah. Um are you talking about current or or future? Sorry. Clarified. No, I'm if if they if they don't operate by the rules, you said they could lose their liquor license. But my question is, are there any citations that could be issued for other violations, not just losing your liquor license? Sure, there could be noise code violations. Um, you know, if that's what's happening there, I think I think Good luck with that one. Yeah. Um, you're right. It's a little bit difficult. You know, I one thing with the liquor code currently is is it talks about um conduct of the establishment and that's basically what we're talking about applying to these event centers that don't have a liquor license. But if they if they trash the area again, are we going to have to clean it up or this this would be this ordinance would then require those event centers to be good neighbors. I know, but I'm like if they if there's if they don't abide by this and the and people just get crazy and there's bottles outside the event center and it's trash all over, we're the city's not going to be having to clean it up, right? Or Trevor, can I jump in? Mayor, can I jump in, please? Please, please do. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um, so I uh I originally brought this forward. Trevor and I were looking into um some issues that had been going on at the Stampede and and we wanted to to you know see how we could craft this to be be a better partner with one of our bigger event venues. Um but then also we kind of started down this this road of all of these illegal events that are taking place in the city and you know bar and restaurant owners um the liquor licenses that we hold and there's there's various different types um hotel and restaurant uh beer and wine only cabaret there's all kinds of different um liquor licenses even different even separate from what a a liquor store holds and we're held we're held to the highest standards. Um, someone can walk in completely wasted in a liquor store, be in and out in 20 seconds, and um, you know, it's it's very hard to catch a liquor store for over serving somebody. Whereas, like I said, in the bar and restaurant business, we are held to extremely extremely high standards. These event centers, um, and the, uh, events that they're holding, a lot of them are in shopping centers. I have one um in one of the uh shopping centers that I am in. And what happens is I I don't think that the city has ever been held responsible for cleaning it up because what happens is um it's called CAM. So it's called common area maintenance. Um which is an additional charge that is put onto a commercial a commercial lease. So the area is going to get cleaned up. Um but then what happens is it gets put on the rest of the tents. Um and so what Trevor is saying by this will force them to be better neighbors. Um right like that cleanup of that event center if these people trash it and trash the parking lot and it's just a disaster everywhere. Um the the property management company is going to get it cleaned up. Um but then that cost is going to be split amongst all tenants in that shopping center. So, that's what Trevor's kind of talking about, forcing them to be, uh, better neighbors. Um, but the the events that these folks are holding, um, they're holding them all hours. They're holding them and and and there's just no accountability right now. Um, and I think what's going to happen, too, is, you know, we can't go back. Um, you know, Trevor's done a good job of keeping an eye on on these event centers and tracking where we've had shootings and even murders, um, unfortunately. But we can't go back. But these folks that o own these event centers now they're going to be forced to apply for a liquor license and my guess uh Trevor I don't know but my guess is um some of them are shady business owners and they may not even meet uh the criteria to obtain a liquor license. Um, you know, there are you have to go you go through a background check. You have to go through a criminal background check. Um, like Trevor and I spoke about in the last public safety meeting, you have to be you have to hold a certain moral uh high ground to be able to hold a liquor license. Um, so so I think some of these event owners, they may not even qualify to, I mean, we don't know. I could be prejudging. Um but but some of them could be shady business folks and they may be denied a liquor license in which case um they they won't even be able to really do business anymore. But it's going to force them to come into compliance with all of the um all of the licenses food the food licensing the liquor licensing a business license every license it's going to force them to come into compliance. um just like just like a bar or restaurant. Thank you. That's a really good explanation. So, I appreciate it. You're welcome. Sorry for jumping in, Trevor. That's okay. Great. Thank you. Further questions or comments? Uh Mayor Trevor, could you please summarize from your previous slide what the approved alcohol service plan is? So, um the alcohol service plan leaves it a little bit um uh little bit open there uh to provide some flexibility, but mainly what it'll require is that they have a responsible vendor uh somebody's had responsible vendor training to serve that alcohol. And so, how are they going to control that alcohol to make sure it's not over served? And so, um, sometimes we leave that a little bit open because there may be some, um, options in there where that bar, you know, they could say, well, you know, we're we're some of the steps we're taking is we're not going to have hard liquor or if we have hard liquor, we're going to have, um, you know, the responsible vendor training there. So, providing them, you know, trying to provide some flexibility to the business to to provide some assurance that they're going to police themselves and that would uh, they would not need a liquor license or they still would with that. Yeah. to to clarify actually this this the cabaret license isn't technically a liquor license. It's an like an add-on to the liquor license and but the uh the requirements are very similar to a liquor license. And so the event centers wouldn't actually have a liquor license. They'd be required to get this cabaret license. But the way we structured the cabaret license is with the same requirements that has a that a liquor license has in regards to being a good neighbor and having the good moral character. So mayor Yeah, please. Council member Ji. So So one thing that this will do um is like um you know this will end people renting out these event spaces and the event center owners saying, "Well, here's the keys. have a great day and they and they just take off. Um this will put the onus on them. This will put the responsibility on them. Um they will have to have you know a trained bartender. Um they will be under the same um uh the same rules as as you know bars and restaurants with uh you know uh checking IDs and and over service and stuff like that. So, it will force these business owners to be to be a little bit more involved. Um, and with that, to your point, Council Member Bergen, um, if if an owner, if a business owner or if they're to have a manager or something, if this forces them to have someone on site, I think we will see um a lot less of this violence and this crime and these shootings and the trashing of these spaces um out into the parking lot as well. And a follow up to my question, Trevor, if you don't mind, is is there a set closing time then or is it still open-ended? Uh the so there is so with the cabaret license, entertainment must end at 2 a.m. on those. Okay, makes sense. Thanks. Further questions or comments? Councils. Um, yeah. So, just to council member Bergen's point regarding enforcement, kind of following on with that, what would trigger a question about good moral character um for someone holding a license? Like, how do we even make sure that existing businesses are compliant? Yeah. So, good moral character uh is a little bit of an interpretation, but there's there is case law and there is some state law around um what that what that means. And so, what the case law has determined is it's around uh the nature of business itself. Um so, for example, somebody who has a DUI isn't necessarily disqualified, and this was the actual case law, somebody who has a DUI isn't necessarily disqualified from holding a liquor license. You have to relate it back to the business. Um, and also part of that state law requires that you provide them an opportunity to demonstrate rehabilitation. So if they've had a felony, you know, in the past and was never years ago, they can explain, you know, and show history as to why they're no longer disqualified or perhaps why that felony um may have not even related to the to the nature of business. So, usually it's called crimes of moral turpitude, um, time frame and rehabilitation matters in that. Um, and, uh, just want to make sure that the city attorney didn't want to jump in on that. Trevor, in case I had anything else. Okay, mayor, can I jump in? Oh, please. Um, Trevor, just to expand on that, um, it's not just it's not just criminal uh, history that goes along with getting a liquor license. you have you cannot apply for a liquor license until you can provide a copy of um a lease or uh the purchase of a property. So, you know, to be able to provide a lease um you go through kind of a scrutinous process there. You are also background checked there. Um you can also be denied for crimes there. Um you have to show good financial standing at that point. Um, so you do have to provide a lease or ownership of a property to obtain a liquor license. Um, and then you also have to provide um financials uh to uh uh apply for a liquor license. You have to physically show um the bank account where your money is going to come out of to um start your business and you know what who you owe money to and who you it is a pretty scrutinous process um to apply for a liquor license. So if there are truly bad actors um there are several several steps in the process of applying for a liquor license that would weed people out. Other questions or comments? Thank you. Yeah, my question was more about like if there were incidents or problems that occurred then how do we like what is that enforcement mechanism? If there's an issue that occurs after they get the license, how are we then following back up? That was more the focus of my question. So I I can answer that too may proceed. So, every single year, uh, every single year, we have to apply to reapply for our liquor license. And that's with the city and the state. Um, you have to disclose any financial changes. You have to disclose any crimes that you've committed, um, been convicted of, even charged of, uh, charged with. You have to disclose, um, ownership in any other businesses. you um you you pretty much have to disclose everything that's happened in your life the year prior. So if a business had multiple liquor license violations in that past year, if they did commit any crimes, uh it it's it's it's searched and researched every single year. We this is a license we have to reapply for every year and it could be denied. Um, so that is that's how we could uh enforce it is um you know when they go to reapply the following year uh their liquor license could simply be denied. Okay. Um further questions or comments? Mayor, can you ask a question please? Oh, please uh proceed. Council member Lawson. Yeah. So my question Trevor is um and I'm not saying anything is wrong with this but what I am a little concerned about is a lot of these event centers are around neighborhoods and sometimes although the action is inside the action comes outside okay with the noise and all kinds of stuff and I already get complaints from my neighbor from people 9:00 at night about noise just in their neighborhoods. So if so how is that enforcement going to be? So for example they they come outside you know people people you know things happen you know after clubs and stuff like that um noise and all of this stuff. So what's what's the parameter for that in terms of noise and things like that if they get multiple and multiple complaints then they will never be able to go to that um be able to do this. Yeah. Because see the person the people that are going to get the complaints is the council members. I can guarantee you. So I understand things tough in the venue and all that but things happen out in the streets as well. So I'm just trying to figure out how does that work. Yeah. You I think you hit it on the head, council member. This this uh bringing them into this cabaret requirement gives us more teeth to address that. Exactly. That that is one of the things we're trying to get at with this is that uh what we what we have that proximity that conduct the neighborhood impacts that's that's written into our cabaret code that if your establishment is impacting that neighborhood with undue noise and and violence and those types of things because of uh really what what comes down to irresponsible operation of the operation itself. um this now brings them into that fold and not only not only you know they can't just say well it was the event I rented to you know they're responsible going to be responsible for that facility itself and and the parking and the parking area. Yep. Okay. Uh yeah Trevor I know at public safety uh couple weeks ago the idea of insurance requirements had come up. I didn't know if it did that. I hadn't I'm going to I'm going to blame you being out last week, but I don't know. Did that get added in or did you guys decide not to do it? Yeah, we uh uh double check it, but yeah, we I worked with Tim to get that added in. And you can just give an overview what that insurance does. So, I think that that kind of applies to a lot of what these questions are talking about. Yeah. So, so cabaret licenses will be required to obtain uh either I had a discussion with our risk manager either liquor liability insurance themselves if they're serving or host liquor liability insurance. Um we left the amount open in that uh because that may vary by the size of the establishment and also um the um um you know so it so it can also change with inflation and we'll we'll establish that through what the best practice is as far as the amount. Uh so we did say in that amount as set by the finance director which is very similar to what we did with um uh some of our other ordinances as well where we require insurance mayor um yeah I just want to um give council member Lawson some some further reassurance and um you know a story that actually happened in Aurora um what so what this does right now there's no accountability for these event centers um and that's why I think they It's so chaotic. Um there actually was, now this was before I was on council, um but a whole community um came together uh over this bar. Um and this was actually in Ward 5. This is in W 5. Um and an entire neighborhood, Trevor. There was like 200 people showed up, 200 signatures, like threequarters of the neighborhood. um they had had enough. Um this bar was not being responsible. People were all um in the parking lot making all kinds of noise. They were in the back parking lot and it basically butts up to a neighborhood. I mean, their back fence on the other side of that fence is a bunch of homes and this neighborhood um came together. And so with them now having to have a license of some sort, Trevor has the power, the city has the power to put modifications on any liquor license in the city. And so many people came forward from this neighborhood. Hundreds came forward uh about this about this bar um that Trevor and the city put a stipulation on their liquor license that they have to close at midnight. um they cannot stay open until 2 am. So, this provides that extra uh protection if you're getting a lot of complaints about an event center or about something something like that. Um you know, and and and they're still just being wild and out in the street and this and that. Trev Trevor does have the the option and the city does have the option now that they will be forced to have some sort of license. um you know, they can be told, "Hey, you have to shut down at midnight. No more of this. You're not going till 2 a.m. So, that also does provide Trevor another tool to be able to monitor these event centers." Okay. Further discussions? Mayor Council Berg. Yeah, just one last thing. Um because I have a situation happening in one in my ward with um a home that basically is an event center. it. They are having large parties. Um, in fact, the last one advertised on social media said, um, it was the afterparty and it started at 1:00 a.m. to whenever and yet all the neighbors have been complaining for months on end. Um, and then this is kind of the last straw. So, you're not supposed to have an event center when you're in your own personal residence, right? No. And we can't So we can't there's no way to apply any of this to a resident other than just call the police, I guess. Yeah. If this was something that was happening regularly, I mean, yeah, if they're advertising it to the public, it doesn't matter, you know, whether it's in commercial or or private residence. We didn't have any delineation in there, it would still apply. So, I mean, in that case, you wouldn't issue a license to a private residence. So, I mean that's a law enforcement issue one way or the other. Um, and then so I did want to highlight the uh we do have an issue. The version of the ordinance is not the the version of the ordinance in the packet with the insurance is not um it's not in there. It's not in the packet. So, we'll need to amend that ordinance. Apologize for that. for mayor. Council mayor, in light of that, can we not have this dual listed if it doesn't have the correct item in the packet? Um, sponsor council member Jinsky, I don't think that that's necessary. So, and I haven't seen the text of the one with the insurance and I'll I'll let Pete Yeah. No, I I just said if you guys if that's something that you want to include, then we'll have to renotice it u for the next meeting or we could pass one that's in the packet and do an amendment um on the floor at the second reading, but then I'll have to come back for a third reading. So, however you want to do it, if you think the insurance language uh is important. Okay. Further uh discussion. Okay. Uh seeing none, is there any objection to moving? Are we counciling? So we're leaving it dual listed, right? Yes. Okay. Yeah, we can come as Pete uh as city attorney said, we can uh always amend that on the floor, right? It's going to take an extra meeting to do so. Okay. Council member Kums. Okay. Okay. So, I just want to clarify with that being said, there will be two readings with the correct language publicly notice. That's correct. Okay. Thank you. Is there any objection to moving 3A forward? Seeing none, 3A, we'll move forward. Item number 3B, nine scheduled psychoactive ingredients and drug paraphernalia uh implements. So, councils, um, I will go ahead and let Trevor do the presentation and then we can have some additional conversation as needed. All right. Sorry, you're stuck with me. Um, non-scheduled psychoactive substances and drug paraphernalia. Uh, this is related to a lot of things that we're seeing in uh, vape shops and, uh, including liquor stores and convenience stores. Uh, really, it's gray market area items. And I uh it's basically the the businesses or these entities taking advantage of a lack of enforcement or lack of kind of uh uh good regulation on them. And so what these items are uh psychoactive stuff and drug paraphernalia. Um these items are in a way illegal or age restricted. So, we're just trying to consolidate uh these um codes and regulations so that we can basically handle it all on a single inspection and communication and address this. Uh so, codes are dispersed and hard to enforce. And then, you know, when I talk with these operators, they do know and oftentimes they'll they'll um either not answer or state something that's incorrect about the actual use of these items. So, um this is related to uh some of the issues we're seeing. Um, you know, I think we've seen around vape stores, but also throughout the country, you know, why are there so many vape stores? Uh, what's going on? And in regards to community health, uh, there was a study in Los Angeles, um, after communication from the community that, uh, tobacco stores, vape stores actually were as correlated to crime as liquor stores. Uh, they started to see that there were hangouts of of individuals. And that study actually cited the gray market psychoactive items and drug paraphernalia being sold in these outlets. Uh so we see a similar correlation. We're seeing high concentration of these businesses in the uh poorer areas of town or in areas where there's open air drug markets and that's not just in Aurora. I've seen that elsewhere. Uh they kind of fuel it. And there just kind of a lack of community attention. I mean unless you're actually going into these stores and looking what's there. Um I don't think a lot of people know exactly what's what's in them and what's all being sold. So kind of some of the common items we see and I I notate ammonita muscaria which is a it's a legal mushroom but it's not legal to be added to food ingredients. It contains a psychoactive substance called muskamal. Um and so it's not psilocybin which is our regulated mushrooms here in the state but it's a different psychoactive substance. And uh not only that, these mushroom products actually when they're testing them, they're they're finding them having other chemical elements in them uh that are, you know, oftentimes synthetic and derived to be psychoactive. The manufacturers of these are very hard to trace and track down and and they should be uh they're illegal uh nationwide. There's a really good article from last summer in the LA Times that talks about um all the stuff that they were finding in these these mushroom products. I've seen a huge increase in nitrous oxide products in stores. Used to be just the little whippets, but now we're seeing large uh canisters of it. Um mad honey is another substance I'll talk about. Synthetic cannabonoids, which is something the city previously banned, but in the general offense section. Uh which is legal, but we we just address it in coordination with state law. Something called poppers. And we're still seeing hemp derived THC products, basically marijuana, uh, that is coming from out of state, but it's derived from hemp, but has all the same, you know, effects and and is psychoactive just like marijuana because mar hemp is cannabis. And so you can actually derive marijuana products from cannabis. Um, see drug paraphernalia. When we go into these, the the top thing there is, uh, what's an oil burner, which is used for um, smoking meth. Um, seeing uh what we call crack kits with the uh ros in a tubes and the the chore boys used as filters, little baggies used as uh for drug distribution, single-use balloons, and sometimes uh corners of foil used for smoking fentanyl. Um, so an industry that's kind of profiting off of it. This picture was actually taken in in Aurora from a business that we hadn't visited, but they, you know, basically demonstrates they they are fully aware of what those products are used for. And this store, to their credit, was not selling any of those products and had a sign indicating they were not. Um, they didn't want that that clientele u visiting them. Uh, so very just put right on there. No bubbles, no roses, no incense burners. Um, this is a different store. These are I think the first top two rows there are all uh of those oil burners um used for meth really a lot of product here and this wasn't an area that had a lot of open drug use uh where we saw this um getting intoratom this does not banratom just all we all we're going to do is adopt the new state law that was recently signed uh so we can address these products as well uh this is considering considered an addicting substance. You see a lot of it around town. Uh Colorado has it being required to sell to 21 and older only. However, they didn't assign any agency to verify that or do compliance checks. Um nor did they assign any particular agency to go to retail and check and make sure that the products uh are in compliance with the new state law. Um so they can't have products now under the new state law. They cannot have products that appeal to children or adulterated. um they're limited to 2% 7 hydroxy no vapes and and have compliant labeling. Um and so this is something that we can kind of address all at once. Uh the ammonita mascaria products and the other mushroom products I I would you know I think there there's more to this. Uh mushrooms legal. However, uh these these products are are pretty sketchy and and have some other stuff in them. Um and some some of these products uh they've also been found to kind of mislabel the other way where they have nothing in them. uh but they're trying to to trying to trick the consumer that they have something in them when they're tested. So um we've got a pretty close relationship with uh the food inspector CDPHE that that handles this. Unfortunately CDPHE is very limited on resources and they have no authority at retail as they say. So they deal with this at the distributors which has some impact but we do still see stuff come from out of state and I think the vape stores um and some of these outlets know that that if they get it shipped in they can can dodge that. Um, and so, uh, this is a shelf of a lot of those mushroom products. Uh, no regulation on that, no prevention as far as it ending up in the hands of kids when they're selling it that way. Nitrous oxide. These are the large tanks. We're seeing a lot of them with flavored, you know, strawberry flavored, you know, nitrous oxide. Now, these tanks, it's really just exploded. Um, and, uh, there's no regulation in Colorado on this. A lot of states have started taking this up. Um, and I think you're going to hear about it more given how much how much I've seen this grow in Colorado. Um, this particular picture, actually, this was not a vape store in Aurora, but I I use this for a reason in part for the next slide, but you can see the balloons up in the upper leftand corner. They're selling single-use balloons. They try to say this is for um whipped cream. Um, I pull it out in the vape store and I say, "What's this?" And they always say, "Well, that's for whipped cream chargers." And I don't see any milk or sugar or anything else there. So, you know, a lot of them will claim that. I did finally have one clerk admit that that they were, you know, people would inhale that. Um, these are the size of those tanks and kind of in marketing. You can see my hand underneath that. That's 5 and a half lers. Um, so you can see the size of what that is there. It does say do not refill, not for medical use. Do not inhale. Um, these are dangerous. Uh, these will um kill parts of people's brains and cause uh paralysis and death and have been found to do so. So there is a there is an FDA warning on these products in uh the packet here not to use them. However, they're being basically sold as, you know, like we said for whipped cream, but clearly sold in the context for consumption. Um this uh the reason I included that picture that prior vape store, this was not far from that vape store. Um, and then here you can see a bunch of uh nitrous oxide containers in an area known for homeless encampments um that I ran across. I took this picture after having been at that vape store and found that interesting. Um, mad honey is another substance that we're seeing. It's basically uh bees gathering um honey from from from poppy plants. Um and so there's there's FDA warnings on this and we have seen some of this product um out there as well and it is psychoactive um and not FDA approved. Uh synthetic cannabonoids I notated this the city had addressed this previously um in in outlets. So I haven't seen that as much. Teneptine, there's been some new stories on this particularly recently. The FDA put out another warning on this. They're trying to sell it as drug um sorry not as drug but as um um not as a food ingredient. They're trying to get around the FDA regulations and the FDA's put out warnings about this uh stuff as being dangerous and highly addictive. There were some local news coverage of this as well. Uh so we've we addressed that in there as well. Um high THC hemp products. Uh this was a product I found a couple weeks ago in a vape store. it. You know, they're advertising a a large amount of THC that D8 D9 in there. D delta 9 is considered the the uh psychoactive ingredient. Uh it's delta 9 in marijuana. Delta 8 is cross related and also psychoactive. This is prohibited under state law. Um so we want to make sure we we address this as well. Um, and it uh, you know, I I've actually been in communication with a another state on this particular manufacturer. Um, they're very interested in that given that we saw this product. Um, at Poppers, uh, this is alkal nitrate. I found out about this when I was looking at a nitrous oxide ban out of Louisiana, the state of Louisiana. They'd also address these and and these are, uh, inhaling things. They're they're sold as tape cleaners, but but really they're they're uh for inhalation and and the FDA warns about that not being safe. So these uh these regulations deal with items that are not generally regarded as safe. So basically banned by the FDA, but there's lack of enforcement there. Um FDA, CDA, PHE has no enforcement at retail. We know about the nitrous oxide and these manufacturers basically they they go back to PO boxes and stuff. they're kind of hard to trace down because they know a lot of their products aren't good. Um, so we really we try to limit it there. We did create a rule making process in this ordinance to try to keep up with this because it seems they seems always be something new or something that they've added or came up with chemically. Uh, and then try to limit that authority very much to say, you know, just items that are psychoactive that are not generally regarded as safe but do not have some other legal framework around them. and um are uh at a propensity for abuse and and try to limit what our what we're going to look at there. Um a lot of states have focused in on these things. I always I see new stories on all these products, but it's kind of mixed. And I don't know that anybody's kind of taken a real hard look holistically at what's all in the stores at one time and gone, you know, that that's kind of an issue other than maybe um maybe in California um and trying to uh to address those rather than piece by piece. Um, so consolidating those regulations to chapter 26 allows us to kind of do an efficient, um, inspection process, catch up on them. Um, allows the products to be seized, uh, if they're going to be selling them. We're going to try to do an education campaign to to say, "Hey, look, you know, tell your distributors or whatever, uh, this stuff's not okay. Get it out of there because we know that some of the distributors have been selling it and selling some of this stuff and it's not okay." Um, and then, uh, not interfering with any of those other legal frameworks. That's questions of staff. Mayor, Council Bergen. Yeah, I'm glad we're doing this. Um, obviously I'm on uh M&F and it came to that committee. Um, I had some questions on the Kraton. I'm fine with the way it's written currently. Um, you know, with the with the uh SB25 U 072 adopting the new state law. So my only question is you said there was no state agency to regulate theraton. So is that left to us? So it's um no state agency clearly defined at retail. Um what's happened is uh instead of what I would have recommended which be the division of liquor and tobacco enforcement handling that because they have field staff and they're out in the field they they've now the AG's office is going to take it on. And from what I understand from how the AG's office kind of works is they don't have necessarily field staff out there and they're probably going to attack it more at the manufacturer and distributor level. Um, so it, you know, it kind of leaves that that open area. And I think more concerning is they have that 21-year-old plus requirement, but because they haven't assigned it to liquor and enforcement, liquor enforcement, liquor and tobacco enforcement, sorry. Um, they're not doing compliance checks to make sure retailers aren't selling to that. As far as I know, you know, unless there's some locals doing that, it's not happening at the state level. So on you said the manufacturing is not really regulated either on any of these products that the manufacturing is yeah they do go after the manufacturers if they can find them um and distributors. Um so part of that is this will be a partnership which we've already done somewhat with um with some success uh with the state to say here's the products we're seeing and then you know try to figure out where they came from um so that they can go and deal with that. I do know that the the state you know CDPHE doesn't have enforcement at retail but I do know they've gone to these distributors and thrown out a lot of product uh when they find it at the distributors and and do try to chase them down at the manufacturers even if they're out of state. Yeah. I mean it I it's actually it's kind of mind-boggling that people even do these things um and and destroy their brains. Um so you know that's that's just unfortunate that that people do use these substances but I'm um happy uh that we're that we're bringing this forward. Further questions or comments? Uh, seeing that, council. So, yeah, I just wanted to kind of add and I know council member Gardner has also been supportive of these ordinances as they're written. Uh, well, this ordinance as it's written is these are right safety issues, health issues. Um, for substances that are intoxicants that are legal in our state, there's a pretty high amount of regulation on the manufacturer, the businesses, and everything else. And so, um, when there are these unregulated products, it's dangerous. You don't know what's in them. The people who are consuming them don't know what's in them. Um, and so I think it's our responsibility to address those issues. Um, so I would ask my colleagues for your support. Further discussion. Uh, seeing none, is there any objection to moving item number 3B forward? Seeing no objection, item number 3B will move forward. Item number 3 C, vape and smoke shop moratorum. Council member Kums. Um, yes. So, I will hand this off to Trevor in a moment as well. But from my perspective, um just we have an issue of uh just not having clear enough regulations in place in our zoning codes about spacing, location, and things of that nature. So, we could have, you know, a block or a strip mall that's all vape and tobacco shops. Um and so we want to make sure that that's not what's going on. that we're not uh having certain areas that are overburdened. Um so I'll go ahead and pass it off to Treasure for additional improvement. Yeah, thank you. I don't have a PowerPoint on this one. Uh but uh you know to add on to that part of the the driving force of this, there's a couple things. We did have a vape store and actually it was kind of another one in an area up off East Kfax where you had a lot of concentration and I know um some of you maybe have heard of it from a concerned community member when that opened and they were selling some of the things uh that we had uh seen and just that a lot of concentration in there. Uh this would be a temporary moratorum for not to exceed six months. Basically to provide us time to look at uh some options uh for you know regarding any regulations that council might be interested in that would include potential zoning options. Um also if there was any interest in um additional tobacco retailer um oversight regulation licensing which could also include uh resources around compliance compliance checks and some of these other areas um just just as a thought there that's another thing you can look at but provide maybe providing some time rather than um you know having them um open in the meantime. Couple other things that I didn't highlight in my presentation that we have seen with vape stores um in addition to uh you know their correlation to crime and um you know I think poorer communities is where they locate but one of the things that we've also seen is uh some EBT fraud or or um you know SNAP benefits food basically um food benefits from the federal government. I have seen vape stores in a couple occasions where they are u misrecording uh their sales as groceries. Um and I believe that's related to EBT fraud. There was a an article on the Daily Wire uh about this occurring rather substantially nationally between liquor stores and vape stores. And I think we see that as well. We see some of these vape stores advertising EBT and particularly um some of the ones on on East KFax both on the Denver side and Aurora side. So they, you know, targeting the lower income communities is just something to address. And I think we've also seen uh evidence that there's a lot of um um smuggling of product from from out of state uh to avoid the the state tobacco taxes. Uh so just a couple other considerations there. Okay. I just want to say council member Jerinsky is is going to be working on a proposal in fact with you Trevor that will be fairly comprehensive in terms of looking at uh a concentration of these things that would involve liquor stores and a bunch of other areas uh and and coming up with some type of uh policy that to that they're not concentrated particularly in lower income areas. So um I just wanted to make the council aware of that. Further comments or questions? Mayor, so um Trevor, I think this Oh, thank you, mayor. I think this is a good um ordinance. Um I do want to say though that they're not just concentrated on East Kfax. I have one right up the street. Do you guys I mean, you know, so I hope that What are you guys doing about it now? Are you guys going to look in those right now or this is just something new? Yeah. Yeah. So, right now, assuming the the non-scheduled psychoactive ordinance uh that that council gives that approval, we would go ahead and start enforcing that. Okay. Um right now, there's no limitation in regards to spacing on these outlets. You know, they're they're allowed to open where they are. Um we don't have local tobacco licensing. It's just at the state level. Um and as a result, we don't have resources or or necessarily clear authority um in regards to sales to minors. Um okay. You know, and that's one of the things that that that retailer licensing does. Um so, not not necessarily a whole lot. Um I am trying to to, you know, try to get at some of these issues in them. The the what I was kind of running into was, you know, when I go in to deal with drug paraphernalia, for example, that's a general offense provision. Well, I need law enforcement to to write that. So, if we find that and they decide, you know, or they they put it back in there, we kind of got to go through a lengthier process to get the police involved to address it. Um, so that, you know, at least we can kind of deal with it a little bit more holistically on that that effect. But I think you're you're right, council member. some other areas of part of town, you know, I can point to to specific areas where we have seen kind of concentration of vape or drug paraphernalia outlets and they do seem to overlap with uh areas of crime. Okay. Well, point being is that, you know, this is not just an issue in all of just economically what we say economically challenged. It's all over the city. So, I'm hoping that, you know, we look at that from a a ground level perspective because I have them in my ward for sure. So, Mayor Gardner, uh, Council Gardner, thanks. Um, yeah, I I appreciate what um, Council Member Kums and Medina are trying to do here. And, um, but I'm not supportive of a moratorum. Um, you know, it sounds like we're going to start enforcing um, you know, the prior ordinance that we just heard, um, once it becomes effective. Um, but, you know, there are there are legal vape shops. Um, it's a it's a product that adults consume, consume legally. Um, and, you know, I don't want to start going down the road of banning certain types of businesses, if even for a short time, when there could be people, we say we're a pro business city. there could be people in our city um that could be making their living off of this type of business. And so um you know it sounds like there's some other um ordinances that are being worked on um to kind of address some of this and you know certainly we have what we just heard um before this but um I'm not supportive of a moratorum. Further questions or comments? Mayor Council Member Terinsky then council member Bergen. Thank you. Um, since you alluded to it, I guess I I will uh speak about what Trevor and I um are are working on. Um, and this is sort of expanding off of, you know, getting these event centers under control. Um, but um and Council Member Lawson, you know, I'm always droning on and on to you about Ward Five and the B the businesses in Ward Five. Um, you know, I I'm seeing it everywhere. Um, and what I have noticed is, you know, once these vape shops move in, these check cashing places um, move in, we get overwhelmed with liquor stores. It just it just has continued to make it harder and harder to, uh, lease space to other people. So, I don't know if it's just becoming landlords are becoming so so desperate that they're happy to line three vape shops up right next to each other. Um I'm I mean I in one shopping center that I'm in I have two vape shops. I have um anywh who um so I'm seeing this firsthand. Um and so that's why uh whether or not we we agree to have this moratorum or not um I am working with Trevor fairly quickly to bring this forward and we did have the conversation do we start this in just the Kfax corridor. I told Trevor absolutely not. We need to be ahead of this because if we start this in one part of Aurora they will quickly scramble to other parts. They already are in other parts. Um, I've had all kinds of issues with one uh one vape shop um in one of my shopping centers. The other vape shop is great. Um, but you know, I'm seeing a lot of this firsthand. There's some shady stuff going on with these check cashing places. Um, some of these are predatory businesses. Um, and so I am bringing this forward as a citywide ordinance. Um, not leaving any word out. Um, and a lot of it is based on my own uh perception of of what I what I am seeing firsthand um and and watching a lot of other really good businesses um go out. So, I don't know if that if that affects anybody's opinion either way about having a moratorum, but I am working with Trevor to bring this forward um as quickly as possible. Um and and what it'll be is it'll be um like certain spacing requirements um you know for these types of businesses which we already do have in place for some types of businesses um in Aurora. But this just expands that um to to other businesses so that we don't end up with two three vape shops in the same shopping center with check cashing places and liquor stores and pawn shops and all the things that I deal with. Um and the whole city the whole city is dealing with um it's not just the Kfax corridor. So like I said that's just my two cents. It's coming forward very soon. I don't know if that changes anybody's mind either way about this moratorum. Um but but this is being worked on diligently. Mayor. Well, I'm just one quick question I think council member Bergen and that is um is this is this written for a straight six months or is it for me I just assume I want to see when I want to see what council member Jeriski's policy looks like? Um can anybody answer that question? Yeah. Uh Trevor, do you have it pulled up in front of you? Do you want me to pull it up? Holland, do you have the answer to that real fast? Second here. And it's just it's just a rough draft, mayor. Um well, not your pol I mean I want to wait. I I think that in a way this is premature. I want to see what your policy looks like. Oh. Oh, I see. Okay. But when you And so um I I think your policy might very well address the issue. And so how is this um Mayor I'm asking if Hans can can jump on real quick since he drafted it. Yeah. And it and it is just a very rough draft. This is the first draft that we put out. Um Trevor and I have had one conversation since. Um I told him he was being a little too nice on some of the some of the uh spacing requirements. Um but um we I think that we should have this coming forward um on an agenda in July. So um but if if you guys have the rough draft handy uh to pull up No, no, I don't I city attorneys or Hans. Yeah, Hans, if you can jump on on answer to that question about if it's just a straight six months. Mayor, thank you for uh the opportunity. This is Hans from the city attorney's office. The ordinance is written up to six months. So, if there is something that for example can be completed in three months, that ordinance that will change things, we'll go ahead and repeal this moratorum or we can just let it expire naturally. But it is up to six months but it could be less than that. And so Hans if nothing happens it'll expire at the end of six months. No further action. Okay. That's correct. Naturally it will expire in six months. Mayor I'm sorry. Council member Bergen I had was already Yeah. So I was at first I was for the moratorium and then I was going to be like no let's wait till we see council member Dinsk's ordinance. But if it's written for up to and it can be reduced um based on uh what council member Jerinsky is bringing forward um then I think I would be in favor of it. How how would that work if we um if we wanted to end the moratorum earlier than six months? How does that work? Mayor, I wanted to offer a friendly amendment to council member Kums's. Oh, let me uh let it get an answer to council member Bergen and then we'll go to you. Yeah, Hans go and answer how that how that works if this passes how that would happen to end it sooner than six months. Yeah. How could it end sooner? Okay. So, there is two ways this could happen, right? You could have uh the ordinance die naturally, right? If you for example create something within let's say five months, five month and a half, right? by the time this plan goes into effect it will be already um you know the six months and it will die naturally. Say that you know we get into this very quickly and by next month we already have a plan. Well, we present an ordinance. It takes about, I would say, 90 days to get, you know, into effect. That ordinance could contain a a subsection that says ordinance, you know, that created the moratorum is here by repeal, right? Because it hasn't been the six months yet. But likely what will happen here is that while we work on this, it will take about a couple months. By the time we present it, it goes through the council process. will become effective after that moratoring is already expired. So it would take legislative action. Yeah, it would take legislative action to end it sooner than six months. Can I finish please? Okay. Okay. Council member Bergen. Everybody's jumping in. Um Okay. So it can end earlier based on what comes forward with Council Member Jerinsky. If hers comes forward very quickly, what I'm hearing is that her ordinance would just have a provision that says that the this moratorum is hereby repealed. Right. Right. Got it. Okay. Council member Deriski, I was just going to offer that friendly amendment to council member Commes um to pass her moratorum today with a friendly amendment that when my uh ordinance comes forward uh if we pass my ordinance, it automatically ends hers right there. Okay, that's what I was going to offer. Mayor. So, in my conversations with Trevor, I think we discussed more than just spacing as potential policies that could be brought forward. So, um I would rather leave it more general and not as automatically repealed by one policy because we might identify some other solutions that would be helpful. Um, so that that's my only kind of heartburn I guess about putting in that it automatically gets repealed after one ordinance is if we identify other things that need to be worked on in that time um then we're not as far as zoning or other things then we've said oh well but in the interim while we're trying to pass these other policies people can build as many and open as many of these things as they want knowing that other policies are coming forward they can do other stuff that doesn't fall under those policies. So that would be my concern about putting that caveat. Okay. May I pretend? But let me just say first before Mayor Pretend and that is in council member Jerinsk's proposal, she could have language that repeals uh upon passage of her proposal that repeals the moratorum. Thank you. I'm picking up on uh Council Member Gardner's point about the pro business aspect of this thing, but we when we look back upon the previous ordinance that we just gave a thumbs up to to move forward, 3B, non-scheduled uh psychoactive ingredients and drug paraphernalia, that's going to help this situation, isn't it? If we did nothing here, we're doing something already with these existing vape shops that going to operate uh in in a more healthy, responsible manner, right? Uh therefore, it might put some of those vape shops that are relying upon these illegitimate substances out of business and could rectify the number of uh vape shops out there. Council member Gardner does bring up the point that there are legitimate vape shops out there. So, I mean, we could start with 3B, see how it goes for 6 months, and then what is the formula? What formula say, okay, who's going to say no, you can't have a vape shop here? No, you can't have a I just I'm just I'm curious about the formulaic aspect of dictating where there can or cannot be certain types of businesses or shops. Yeah. Okay. The policy is not written yet. Council mayor, can I respond? Yeah. So, right, that's the point of having a moratorum is to be able to talk through those items and be able to work through the policies. Um, so this isn't a comprehensive policy to address every problem. It's a tool that we can have to help us have some time, a safeguard so that people who may be bad actors are not taking advantage of the fact that we don't currently have the policy in place to get in under the wire while we're trying to pass those other policies. So that's the purpose of a moratorum in my opinion. Uh, further questions or comments? Mayor Gardner. Uh, Council Gardner. Yeah. And it may be neither here nor there at this point because it sounds like there's not going to be a friendly amendment on this ordinance. But a question for the city attorney's office. I don't I don't understand procedurally how a repeal of this could be put into this ordinance for some unknown future ordinance. Wouldn't that repeal have to be put in that future ordinance to repeal this one? Council member Garner, that is correct. So basically what it would work correct so if this thing is to pass and we have up to six months if council member Dinsky's policy comes forward and everybody's happy with it they want to repeal this ordinance they would both go into a the repeal and the new policy that that would be in council member Dinsk's ordinance would go into effect at the same time so they could start reissuing business permits under the new policy at the time this is repealed. I just think with the timing and again I just how everything goes I I mean reality is you're probably looking at five months six months of a moratorum if this passes counc um yes so in term what we're trying to do I guess is come up with policy to to make sure that you know we don't have high concentration of these all in certain communities um just wherever in in whatever ward Um, we already have this in effect with with our marijuana retail establishments. And when when that was done years ago, um, it was four marijuana retail stores per ward. So, we we've already gone down this road before. Um, so that you don't have 10 vape shops, you know, down one street. Um, and I think, you know, I'm not trying to be anti- business, but we have the right to to um, you know, from a land use perspective to to say how many we want, wherever, so that our city doesn't end up looking crashy. Let's use that word. Thank you. Uh, further questions. Oh, uh, may I ask a question of clarification? with him. I know some international markets that are that operate almost as vape shops. Does does this include them too? Yeah, the uh the definition is 15% or more floor space. Um, so it I would I I know some of the ones you're talking about and I think some of them would be caught up in this and that's what I included in my numbers uh given what I kind of see in these um you know maybe maybe not. So um you know and it's a moratorium so it' be new ones coming in. So do like, you know, if we see something we think may be within that realm, we'd reach out to them and say, "Hey, you know, what's uh what's going to be your floor space for this stuff?" And maybe reduce that so you're in compliance with the ordinance in the meantime. Further questions or comments? Mayor Mayor, so I just want to clarify that having a moratorum on licensing of new establishments falling under these definitions does not close current businesses. We are not out here closing current businesses. We're just saying from what we currently have in place, um, we want to take some time and examine other rules we might want to have around spacing, zoning, and other considerations. Further questions or comments? Uh, see, um, council may um, my question is, do we know how many of these businesses we have in our city right now? What's the total number? Because I haven't heard that number. My estimation is 57. And that's spread all across the city. Correct. Is there a concentration more in one area than the other? Are they just equally dispersed? Because I'm thinking about what council member Bergen said about the limitations that we have on marijuana establishments throughout the city is uh I mean the businesses are already there. So there's not too much we can do about that. But if we're looking at trying to balance out the number of businesses of that of this type um in the city, how are we going to manage that? Yeah. And would this ordinance do that? I mean, would this would the ordinance and or the moratorum help to facilitate that? The moratorium helps facilitate that. One of the things we need to do is get a good handle on that. It's a little bit uh tricky. I mean, we can pull up a map, but it's going to show concentrations in commercial areas. Um I do know you know just from observations of the city there are specific spots of concentration. You know when you look at East Kfax uh there there Mississippi and Poria there seems there's like a stretch of them there. You know there's kind of little spots of them around town. So trying to identify that. Um you know a couple couple other relevant factors. I I think there is another risk factor out there with Denver's flavor band potentially um increasing the numbers you see along the uh particularly along the Denver side uh potentially increasing there. Um we have about 350 approximately 350 total tobacco retailers in the city. Uh but you know of that number it's I you know looking at vape stores either through titles or what we know of the stores I would put us around 57 total there. So there questions or comments council garden Trevor how many liquor stores do we have in Aurora? Is it more or less than 57? 87. So it's more. Okay. Thanks. And mayor just real quick if I can. Yes. Trevor, can you can you just explain the practical application of the ordinance? Like, is this going to start with all new applications? So, if people that are already in the application process, they get to continue and finish or is it just granting? Just kind of give the idea because I think that question hasn't been answered yet for for council. Yeah, it would be new applications that would come in, you know, assuming when the ordinance gets gets into effect. Um, so, uh, so everybody else that's in the process now would be finishing out under the old rules and there's anybody new, so it wouldn't be closing down anybody that's going to open tomorrow, right? Because they're already in the process. That's correct. Yep. Further questions or comments? Seeing none, is there any objection uh to moving uh item number 3C forward? Our new item number C 3C uh will move forward. Um item number 3D, unified development ordinance amendment for setbacks and easement around plugged oil wells. Uh Jeffrey Moore. Uh thank you, mayor. Good evening, council members. My name is Jeffrey Moore, manager of the energy and environment division for the city. Let me go to presentation mode here and I'll share a couple slides with you. Uh thank you for the opportunity to present on this topic this evening. I think it's an important one uh for the future of the city and u we've been working on this for quite a while and pleased to bring it forth to you tonight. Uh as a reminder, plugged wells are wells that have uh no longer producing. All the surface equipment has been removed. Uh there's been some cement placed into the pipe of the well in the ground and that it's been covered up and so there's not much left to see there. We have 68 wells plugged in Aurora currently. We will have hundreds more in the future because one day, decades from now, all the wells that are currently producing will be plugged. About half of the wells that we have have been replugged. Uh meaning they were drilled maybe in the 70s or 80s and plugged then and then plugged again recently since uh 2020. We do believe that most wells will be replplugged in the future. Uh there are several reasons for that. One is to stop leaks. Uh we fortunately we've not had any leaks from plugged wells in Aurora, but we know offsetting jurisdictions that have had that. Uh to avoid risk, protect our aquifers, and there is a state ECMC rule that requires replugging of certain wells before drilling a new well within 1500 ft of the old one. What we need when we do a replugging is we need space around that well because u the graphic you see on the screen is a picture of an actual replplugging in Aurora. This is the Medscrewer well down in Southshore back in 2021. We have to put the drilling rig right over that pipe in the ground and other equipment has to be brought in around the rig to support uh the operation for safety uh and to do the job right. And so it's really preserving the space around that plugged well with no physical structures in that space that we're looking for. Um surrounding jurisdictions have already have this setback in code. Adams County, Arapjo County, Wel County, Broomfield, uh most of the front range jurisdictions already have this. So um it's important that we consider it now because these rules and regulations do not apply to the oil and gas operators. They would apply to uh future surface developers. We have worked extensively with the development community uh on the specifics. I've got a slide I'll share on the changes we've made in response to their uh questions and comments. We met with them a year ago uh this month uh in person to talk through and hear some of the concerns. And we've got a really good place that we've landed. We've got a three-pronged approach here that we are proposing. The first is what we call the setback area. The setback area applies to the land uh obviously to the to the owner and the developers. The goal of the setback area is to provide that space around the well with no structures inside. We would establish it with a setback in the UDO. The main parameters are the physical size is if it's a square, it would be 150 ft by 150 ft or otherwise 22,500 square ft. It's about half an acre in size. No utilities within 25 ft. No buildings within 50 feet. No residences, schools or hospitals within 100 feet uh of the plugged well. The benefits there are that space can be used by developers for a number of requirements. Um as long as in if it's in the uh in compliance with the pros manual, it can be used for parks, open space. U we we have wells under parking lots and all of that is is perfectly fine. The second prong is the easement. Now, this would be a limited easement to the city staff, be granted by the property owner, granted to the city. Uh the the easement is simply for the city staff to go and do a non-invasive soil test on an annual basis to make sure that there's no leaks uh that are occurring, that everything is in good shape of that well. There would be a established by an assigned easement document. Uh that'd be very similar to a navigation easement. that document uh the easement would be recorded at the county level and that would provide some notification uh if properties change from one owner to another. The main parameters are it's permanent runs of the land and it applies only to the surface. Uh benefits there of course as I said city staff could access that space without further uh approval. And then finally the replplugging authority this would apply to the operators or a licensed rig contractor with the state. Uh the goal would be to repair a well or bring it up to modern standards if needed. Two things would be needed for that uh before replugging. One is a permit through the state uh for downhole work and then an agreement with the surface owner. Uh key parameter is it does require the operator to reclaim the surface back to the original condition and the benefits of course is it protects people in the environment by repairing leaking wells or preventing pollution. I mentioned that we've worked with the development community. Uh this is a chart that kind of shows some of our original ideas and what we proposed uh in the past and the changes that we've made in response specifically to developer uh comments on authority. Originally the city had authority for most of the decisions that authority is now shared between the city, the land owner and the state. The size was originally uh 200 by 200 which is about an acre. We've reduced that to half an acre. So we've gone down by 50% there. uh the method originally all of the parameters and the setback were in an easement document. We've split that out to the three-pronged approach that I just presented. We still require the developer to locate a well. The reason for that is they need to survey it and they need to put it on their site plan. Um so we still require them to physically locate it. Uh there's lots of ways to do that. the well condition. Uh originally we were asking the developers to determine the condition of the well and to actually do the replplugging themselves uh or through a contractor if needed. Uh we've changed that to say the city and the state will work to determine the condition. If there's a need for replplugging, generally speaking, the state through the energy and carbon management commission would replug the well uh as an orphan well through their uh their expense in their program. Above ground utilities, we've reduced that from a 50oot set back to 25 ft. below ground utilities um still at 25 ft, but there's an option for the city engineer to approve a variance for a closer distance. Uh access to the site is still 24 feet wide. That's uh driven by Aurora Fire Rescue and their need for that width uh for accessing. Uh exempting structure existing structures are exempted. So anything any building that's already constructed if this ordinance passes uh would be exempted. And then finally, the residential setback is still 100 feet, but we did add schools and hospitals to that list. um at the suggestion of the development community. Let me give you a little visual example here. So what you're seeing on the screen is an aerial photograph. That is that um HOA park there in Southshore where the rig picture was just a few minutes ago. The red the yellow star in the middle is where the the plugged well is. And if there were a setback area there of 150 x 150, that's what the red outline uh would show. Now, let me zoom in on that area and I'll show you how the um other setbacks applied. So, the the the red uh square there, that's essentially where the equipment will be cited uh to do the work. In addition to that, we have the 25 ft uh radius set back from the well. Uh a 50-ft building set back from the well, and then the 100 foot uh resident, school, hospital setback. The reason we have the circles in addition to the square is the square does not necessarily have to be centered on the well itself. The well could be more towards the corner uh or it could be a rectangle for example, not not a square. Uh and so in those cases, we do still want to maintain uh certain distances from the well itself uh with no buildings. Um how can the setback area be used? If this is a rural area, it can continue to be agricultural or livestock. If it's an urban area, as I've already mentioned, and if it's in compliance with the pros manual, it can be a park, it can be an open space. Uh that HOA park where the med well is, uh it's there it is. This is the way it looks after it was uh reclaimed and returned to its original condition after the replugging. Uh we've also approved uh plugged wells in the past over parking lots and and attention ponds uh over a plugged well. So, a lot of different ways that the land can be used. Um we've gone to the uh development review advisory board in April and the oil and gas advisory committee. Both groups approved. We went to peed in May planning and zoning commission last month or sorry this month and we're here this evening and if it passes then we would propose to move it forward to city council uh at the next meeting in July. Thank you for your time. Happy to answer any questions that you may have. questions of staff. Uh, seeing just I'm sorry, mayor, I just question I just have one question. So, when you restore these back to their original uh composition, does anyone know that there was a well there? And how would you know for you know I know I don't know anything about oil and gas re um appropriation but tell me how people would know that it was ever there and is that a concern or does anybody care? Um I I think in general most people are are not aware that the wells are there because they are buried. U generally that pipe is cut off 5t below the ground surface and so there's no evidence at the surface that there is a well there at the depth. Uh there are state records uh through the ECMC that indicate where those wells are. Um our our division maintains a database of where those wells are and a map uh as well. And so they're they're there. Um if if this passes and if the easements move forward, then those easements would be recorded when they are granted to the city. And that would be some additional evidence if you were purchasing a property, for example, um that you could see that there was an easement on the property for the uh the plugged well and note the location. We will also require them to be put onto site plans in the future as well. So, any new developer uh moving forward would need to locate the well and survey it and have it accurately placed on a site plan. You answered my question. That's what I was trying to figure out if for future development or anything like that if someone would be able to know um and that you have it five feet deep. That's also a safety concern. So, thank you. You answered my question. Thank you. Further questions or comments? Uh mayor um councelor Holmes. Uh yes. So um in addition to kind of that Jeffrey um if someone is purchasing a home in the vicin like in a development or in the vicinity of those properties that would also be included in their documents as they're purchasing the home. Is that correct? Thank you. Council member Kums. um if they were purchasing a property where the well was actually on their property itself um they would see that in the in the easement um or on the site plan, you know, for the neighborhood. If it's not on their particular parcel that they're purchasing, um they may not see that if it's on some other property in the neighborhood. Further questions or comments? Uh, seeing none, is there any objection to moving 3D forward? Uh, seeing no objection, item number 3D will move forward. Item number um 3E, amendment to uh the city code to add a local amendment to the motor traffic uh code pertaining to offensive eluding. Um, APD commander uh Ma Matt uh Brooker. Uh, good evening, Mr. Mayor. Commander Matt Brookbacher, special operations with the police department. Um, this is specific to a uh a law that was just signed by u the the governor that empowers municipalities to take over enforcement of uh registration violations. That's going to be a huge win for the city. Uh, obviously, we're writing a ton of state tickets uh for this and I think we're doing eluding first. Oh, I'm so sorry. Yeah, my apologies. All right, eluding. I was like, "Woohoo." And then, yeah, jumping into the next one. I apologize, Angel. I saw you looking at me funny. I should have paid attention. Um, so this is specific to bringing the model traffic code in line with state law. So, we're seeing a lot of problems with enforcement from our uh unmarked units that are very well marked with emergency equipment, but are not a black and white with a light bar on top. and we've had issues with municipal court accepting those violations for misdemeanor looting when it doesn't rise to the level of a felony. So, with the uh the support of uh Manny McDonald, uh we've been able to bring that more in parody with state law uh under the reasonleness standard, which is uh the the best standard out there for uh enforcement. That's all I have on that. Okay. Thank you. Questions of staff? Seeing none, is there? Um, councelor Mars. Yeah. So, I'm just trying to better understand. So, they have to still demonstrate that a person reasonably would know that they're eluding an officer basically regardless of the marking on the vehicle. That's essentially what this is requesting. Absolutely. um model traffic code specifically required a marked police car and all we're doing is changing to the reasonleness standard that anyone would realize that it's a police car with audible and uh visual signals. Uh further questions or comments? Mayor, uh Council Men. Yeah. So, you know, there's been uh situations uh I think one just recently where it was um someone impersonating a police officer um that ended up in a a tragic situation. Um uh so if if one is somebody has lights and is asking you to pull over, you can just call 911 to verify that. Yes, council member. That's correct. So the we still talk about that safety aspect and pulling to a well-lit area in areas like that. Um and those are mitigating factors. This is truly for people that have very clear intent to evade uh law enforcement contact. Okay, great. Thank you. And council member Burham and my office is going to look at those right that there's these extenduating circumstances like hey I called 911 to make sure it was a legitimate cop. We're not going to prosecute that. They may get cited for it but this is under our city codes. It's a misdemeanor. Other questions or comments? Mayor Ceros. Yeah. So to the city attorney, how do we ensure at that point that people have the ability to communicate those issues like right they get cited, they're coming to court. How are we making sure they have the support that they need to convey whatever their situation may be? Um, like I'm worried that if folks didn't have their own council that they brought with them and they hadn't had a public defender application hearing and their prosay in that instance. Um, like how are we making sure that their ability to explain their extenduating circumstances is still available to them? Because frankly, we've had a number of scary instances of people of people impersonating police officers. um recently and so I think people have good reason to be afraid of whether or not folks are actually officers that are saying they are. So a a couple things on that council member uh Kums. One is is that it if we are I mean this is going to be under the general penalty in the in the city code. So they will be entitled to a public defender if they can't afford one. So that's the first thing. The second thing is I, you know, I know most people, if you know, I'm using generalities here because I'm a lawyer, but I say all of them would say, "Hey, I just called 911 to make sure you were legit." And dispatch would say, "Hey, you know, whatever unit is your violators calling 911 to verify that you're behind them, just confirming it's you." So, that'll be on the body cam stuff. So I I think there's enough safeguards in place because they're going to be entitled to courtappointed counsel, the public defenders office, and other things that my office, we're not going to be unreasonable about these. If there are extenduated circumstances, we're definitely going to take those into account. So sorry, just following up because at this time, right, someone has to have a hearing to apply for a public defender and then come back again um for the hearing on their case if they're asking for a public defender. Is that correct? I think that's the process, but nothing happens in their underlying criminal case until that process is resolved. So, they have the, you know, they're going to apply for the public defender and then at that point, again, because the municipal courts are going to make sure that because this is a a a crime that could be, you know, could result in jail time, they've got to have counsel or they got to wave it, right? And if they we're not going to allow them to do that in these cases because that's why they get the public defender or another courtappointed counsel from office of alternate defense council. So that all happens on the very front. It's the same stuff that we were doing uh with domestic violence cases. It'll be the same process. Sorry, one more kind of followup to that is do we have any idea how many additional cases this might add um by changing this standard? Matt, I would probably defer to you. I don't know how many misdemeanor eluding cases. You know, eluding is defined as right. They're not they're not fleeing, so to speak, from the police officer. They're just ignoring the overhead or the the lights and and and siren to stop. So, I I know they don't have it all that often, but I'll I'm going to turn to the to the expert to Matt and say what what he thinks um that that this might do. and and they are actually fleeing. Um the way the ordinance written uh it says um a motor vehicle uh that driver willfully increases his or her speed or extinguishes his or her lights in an attempt to elude such police officer or willingly or willfully attempt in any other manner to elude the police officer. Um, so the reason that this came up is specifically to my gang unit uh who drive pickup trucks, but the they're unmarked, but they have a lot of lights and a lot of individuals that they try to contact will take off from them and elude. Uh, and it may not rise to the level of felony eluding. So, we try to charge it in a misdemeanor or in a municipal court. And we've had judges that have read the letter of the law with model traffic and said, "Well, I'm sorry you're not in a marked car, so we can't accept this this charge. So that's what I meant. So sorry it was like it doesn't rise to the felony level right that they're being pursued right from by the officer. They're just taking steps to not stop immediately upon seeing the lights and siren of the of the police vehicle. Further questions or comments? Uh seeing none, is there any objection to uh for 3E to move forward? Uh seeing no objection, item number three will move forward. Item number 3F, amendments to city code to enforce state vehicle registration requirements. Um, uh, APD Commander Matt Brewer. I explained most of it, but this is going to empower our officers to charge registration violations into municipal court instead of state court. We are writing a lot of summones, so that brings that revenue back to the city. uh that is going to be a really big win for us and it also gives us a little bit more local control over the enforcement of registration violations which is a a continuing uh high priority for us. Uh Council Member Hancock, thank you for your work on this. Uh further questions or comments? Uh seeing none, is there any objection for to item number 3F to move forward? Uh item number 3F will move forward. It number 3G, advanced public safety funds agreement. Uh, Emmanite. Good afternoon, council. Uh, can you all hear me? Okay. I'm on my headphones. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Um, all right. This, um, this agenda item is to provide some additional funding to advance for operating the Aurora Day Resource Center in the interim until we open the navigation campus. This is some additional public safety dollars that were not um allocated during our NOFO process and um fit quite well into what we would normally use them for. Um in advance uh is has been operating the Aurora Bay Resource Center as day services and overnight shelter for the past several months and um this is outside of their regular scope from what we had with our operator agreement with them for the navigation campus. So, um, this is to help fund what they are currently doing in regards to homeless services. Okay. And any questions, questions or comments of staff? Uh, seeing none, is there any objection to move 3G forward? Seeing none, item number 3G will move forward. Item number 7A, public alert and warning systems. Uh, Matthew Chapman. Yeah. Good evening everyone. Let me share my screen at a quick presentation. All right. Again, my name is Matt Chapman, signed as the emergency manager for the city. Uh, tonight's presentation is is quite a bitformational. And then we also have I know council has been briefed um on the outdoor warning siren system, uh, some of the issues we're having with that. So, we'll we'll lead with this because we we've gotten some questions about what warning systems are we using, what tools are we using for public alert and warning, and this is just a quick overview of that. And then, uh again, we'll get into the siren system. First up, code red. I know the city comms promotes this quite a bit. This is our reverse notification system. Uh we tag it as alert aurora on the the website. You go to the website, every single page that you navigate to has emergency alerts at the top, right? Sign up for emergency alerts. And this is where you opt into the system. This is to put in context what people would consider a reverse 911. Little bit different though. Everybody can call into 911. Everybody text 911. This system is different though. So to get the most out of this, it is an opt-in system that we try to promote and get folks signed up for this to to truly get what they need out of this system and and get it set up the right way for those folks. Weather notifications are available through this. City staff does not send out a weather notification. It's all automated within that system. So, it's tied to National Weather Service. They can when they opt in select what weather notifications they would like. Your second one is iPod and throw an acronym in, right? So, this stands for integrated public alert and warning system. So, the biggest one with this, this gives us access to really a suite of kind of public alert tools. Uh the biggest one for this this is an agreement we have with the federal government and the state state government to access the system and the biggest one would be the wireless emergency alerts. So those are very similar to the Amber Alerts. It's it's the same technology, same process where we'd be able to push out a message to our residents. That's where we'd probably hit the most amount of people in an alert and warning situation. We do have access to the emergency alert system, you know, a TV radio where they they interrupt with the message, uh, weather radios, and some other internet based services. Uh, some things like roadside signs, that kind of thing as well. But the biggest one would be the wireless emergency alerts, social media, another platform we have, um, like we hit all of these social media sites between citycoms, uh, police and fire pios. We have actually probably more followers on these social media sites than we do in code red by by quite a bit. And these are also good for advisory notices. A couple weeks ago, we sent out, hey, weather's going to be bad this afternoon. Just a heads up and everybody have plans for um for weather in case it turns turns bad. Also in real world events, we're using these platforms to update on things that are going on um and also when when things have been concluded and under control. So that this this conversation around the outdoor warning sirens right right now and this is I know it's come up in the last few weeks. Um really we're dealing with kind of a system that's end of life for for several different reasons in several different areas. Um, this has been in place, you know, since at least the early 80s. We have 58 sirens across the city right now. Uh, it's an allhazard system. So, we we say, you know, it could be for all hazards. We need to notify you. We need to get your attention. It's primarily used for tornado warnings, however, and I think that's what it's our public mostly associates it with. There's a map. I don't know if you can see that real well, but that's the current coverage of the city. So you can see where we've expanded where land and and building is has expanded in the city is not quite covered by some of the the current system. These are some of the jurisdictions that are using it in the front range. You can see Brighton is discontinued. We did discontinued Weld County. It's only certain cities in Weld County. It's not the entire county. Um so you can see that it's it's a limited number currently. Uh again jurisdiction to jurisdiction there's there's no uniformity on how these are these are activated or there's a clear and all clear some have a voice some don't and what type of hazards they're using these for our system this is one of the limitations it's all or nothing. So what's all 58 sirens in the city are or nothing at all. So that creates an issue for us with the city growth that the the threats in the north part of town with your blue skies in the south. It creates some confusion. One of the other limitations for this also is the delay in time from receiving the National Weather Service warning to activation of the system. This is not automated. So we've always promoted this as make sure this is a secondary notification system for you. This is not a primary because there is a lag and notification between when city staff gets the National Weather Service warning, verifying that that is within the city boundary of of Aurora and then issuing the U activating the sirens. So right now in addition to some of the the outdated technology the end of life in some of the technology additional sirens are needed to cover the growth of the city. security concerns around it and the current software that that it runs on. Um, reliability is the biggest part of the conversation tonight of bringing this forward. We have a system that is not completely what I would say reliable in its current state without a lot of repair and some maintenance on it. Here was just some uh, you know, basic numbers that we got from our current vendor that does the maintenance on it. This is what our estimate is of how many new sirens would probably would be needed to cover new growth. Uh and this is some of the technical work that needs to be done on them as well. These are notification alternatives that we always push anytime we talk about this. So this is this is I have three or four of these in place of of siren activation. Uh local media, National Weather Service alerts. Uh there there's a number of these out there that that can you can access for notifications. So our recommendation right now as it stands and like I said based you know a lot on the reliability the age of the system that's kind of where we're at with this uh would be to take this for now to take the system offline while we address that or you we decide on the return on investment of the system. you see the cost of it. Um, public safety prioritization of that funding. And this is a number I I asked the National Weather Service for. We've actually set the sirens off for a tornado warning five times for a real world tornado warning in since 2019. With that, that is all I have. If there are questions, uh, questions of staff. Yes, Mayor. Uh, council member Bergen. Yeah, I had a lot of um as you know, a lot of complaints from um from constituents in my ward um primarily because um the sirens didn't go off. And I tried to explain that we did not have them activated because there was no tornado that seemed to be heading into Aurora. It was actually heading um east, although it was very close to some of the neighborhoods like Blackstone and Southshore, so forth. So, just a lot of concerns. Um, and I know you're saying a lot of these um sirens are are not necessarily reliable and have security concerns um that they I guess could get hacked. Um, and that it sounds like we shouldn't people should not necessarily rely on them for any kind of emergency. Um, so your recommendation besides the code red, aren't we looking at some other systems? I I just want to assure the public that we're not just saying just sign up for code red and we're going to do away with the sirens. I hope and I I'm pretty sure I know this from you and from our city manager and our fire chief that we are actually looking at some other systems. I know I referred Mike Nelson to you guys um to look at um a system that he's familiar with. So, if you could just briefly talk about that just to assure the public. Sure, Council. I can talk about that. Yeah, the uh in addition to the systems that Matt talked about that are already in place, whe those are weather radios or other things like that, uh there are some other um applications and services out there that provide um uh better notification. Right. As as uh Matt said, um the city's actually been consistent that uh the sirens were were never supposed to be folks primary uh warning uh system. It's a very antiquated system. Um, and so there are much better uh systems out there to give folks much more pinpointed uh notifications about what's going on and actually give them details about what that notification includes. So yes, we're looking at those systems. That would be part of our plan to kind of uh wind down the system if you would uh is making sure that we're actually providing better uh more targeted notifications for folks with instructions on what they can expect and what they can do to keep themselves safe. And in the meantime, I'll just add that I I have code red, but at night I silenced my phone and so the other night when we had the big storm, um I didn't know I mean I woke up from the storm, but my my phone didn't go off for the code red because I had it on silent mode. So just so people know, um that particular um uh system, you need to have your your phone on uh on and not silenced. further comments or questions. Uh, and this is for information only. I don't think there's any action or is there action required on this? I'm sorry. No, I just want to kind of give make sure council's aware of that. I know we've been have some discussions and so we'll be back uh in the future with you all um probably with some of those additional systems that council member Peran was talking about. Uh and then we'll also start preparing some public messaging around um those new systems and about what folks can do to keep themselves safe. Great. Um, thank you. Uh seeing no uh further business uh before the Aurora City Council study session, this meeting is adjourned and we will reconvene uh at 6:00 p.m. uh for the regular meeting. [Music]