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Planning Commission
City Council – Study Session
Mon, May 6, 2024 at 6:30pm
4 Agenda Items
Virtual and In-Person
Public's Right to Speak
Item No 1 - MEMO - UC Denver GIS Presenation
• Open for comment
Councilmember Weaver has taught a project-based course in the spring for graduate students from CU Denver to tackle current geographical issues with geospatial tools such as GIS. Over the past few years, the course has partnered with City staff to create and address city-specific projects as part of the curriculum. The students will be presenting the outcomes of this semester’s projects to City Council.
Item No. 2 - MEMO - Residential Waste Engagement
• Open for comment
The purpose of this study session is to provide City Council with an update on the Residential Waste Engagement project, including public engagement results to-date and to discuss next steps for the second, final round of public engagement to ensure alignment with Council priorities.
Item No. 3 - MEMO - 2023 B&C Annual Report
• Open for comment
Staff has completed the first Boards and Commissions Annual Report. This report details the achievements of each public body included in the report through the 2023 calendar year, anticipated activities in 2024, and provides information regarding the members of each public body. Staff liaisons and commission members from the Election Commission, Parks and Recreation Commission, and Cultural Commission will present an update on each Commission at the May 6th study session.
Past Meetings
City Council – Special Study Session
Mon, Apr 22, 2024 at 7:00pm
2 Agenda Items
Virtual and In-Person
Public's Right to Speak
Item No. 1 - MEMO - Happiness Gardens Update
Councilmember Hultin requested a special study session on Happiness Gardens. Members of the Parks and Recreation Department will discuss how the garden has fostered community building across generations, honoring the rich history of agriculture in Wheat Ridge. Staff will provide information on how Happiness Gardens has transformed in recent years through grants and partnerships. Additionally, staff will share future plans for Happiness Gardens, as well as the recently acquired Randall Park property.
City Council – City Council Meeting
Mon, Apr 22, 2024 at 6:30pm
13 Agenda Items
Virtual and In-Person
Public's Right to Speak
Item No. 1a - RESO - budget supplement to re-encumber funds
Pending
On February 26, 2024, Council approved the reappropriation of 105 open purchase orders from the 2023 budget for a total re-encumbrance of $14,676,888.46. Three of those 105 purchase orders incurred payments in 2024 prior to the carryover, but the amount was not reflected in the re-encumbrance amount. As a result, the three purchase orders are now short of funds in the amount of the payment that was made. To continue or close out these projects in 2024, a supplemental budget appropriation in the amount of $415,911.71 is necessary to allow transfer of these funds into specific budget line items in the 2024 Budget.
Item No. 1b - RESO - budget supplement for DOLA grant
Pending
In late 2023, the Wheat Ridge Homeless Navigation Program was awarded $75,000 by the Colorado Department of Local Affairs through its Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) application, with funds to be released in April 2024. ESG is a federal, HUD-administered program, now supplemented with Proposition 123 funds. The grant award will be used to support the Navigation Program’s outreach and motel vouchering efforts.
Item No. 1c - RESO - IGA with Denver for Study
Pending
The City received a grant from the Jefferson County Open Space (JCOS) Trails Partnership Program for a trail feasibility study. The study will focus on the area between Creekside Park in Wheat Ridge and W. 52nd Avenue that is the border between Denver and Jefferson Counties to determine if an off-street trail connection is possible in this area to link together the existing Clear Creek Trail. Wheat Ridge will be accepting the Trails Partnership funding so an intergovernmental agreement with Denver is required to outline the terms associated with the management of this project.
Item No. 1d - RESO - agreement with Jeffco Open Space
Pending
The City of Wheat Ridge was awarded $45,000 through the Jefferson County Open Space (JCOS) Trails Partnership Program. The $45,000 award is 50% of the estimated cost for a feasibility study of the area between Creekside Park in Wheat Ridge and W. 52nd Avenue that is the border between Denver and Jefferson Counties to determine if an off-street trail connection is possible in this area to link together the existing Clear Creek Trail. To accept the grant and receive the funding, the City Council must direct the Mayor to sign the grant agreement.
Item No. 1e - MOTION - appoint BOA Members
Pending
Section 2.53(e) of the City of Wheat Ridge Code of Laws states “…any board or commission member who shall change their personal residence to an address outside the city or the district they represent shall cease to be a member of the board or commission…” Betty Jo Page was previously appointed to a District I seat on the Board of Adjustment. She has since moved into District II. She was removed from the Board and she has re-applied for a District II seat. Thomas Burney who holds a District II seat is a resident of District IV. Staff is requesting to appoint Betty Jo Page to the District II seat currently occupied by Thomas Burney and to appoint Thomas Burney to the vacant District IV seat. This will place both members in the districts in which they reside. This will leave a vacancy in District I for which staff will recruit.
Item No. 1f - MOTION - contract with OpenGov
Pending
In 2021, City Council determined a priority of the City must be to streamline permitting and licensing to assist the business community in working with Wheat Ridge and provide greater customer service. Following a two-year evaluation period of systems and existing business processes, the City has selected five systems to drive efficiency and modernize business practices. The second system to be purchased and implemented is OpenGov which will facilitate permitting and licensing for our contractors as well as improving code enforcement visibility.
Item No. 2 - ORD - Amend WR Code of Laws re Public Notice
Pending
Prior to the public hearing for a quasi-judicial application, the zoning code currently requires that the City send letter notice of the hearing to owners and occupants within 600 feet of the subject property. The proposed ordinance extends this letter notice to 1000 feet.
Item No. 3 - RESO - agreement with Renewal Wheat Ridge
Pending
U.S. Retail Partners, LLC (the “Developer”) redeveloped the vacant Walmart retail building within the Applewood Village Shopping Center in 2019 which resulted in new retailers such as Hobby Lobby, HomeGoods, Sierra Trading Post, Ulta, Eyeglass World and Chick-fil-A. To assist in the redevelopment, the City and the Wheat Ridge Urban Renewal Authority dba Renewal Wheat Ridge (RWR) entered into a Cooperation Agreement dated May 13, 2019 which authorized the City to pledge a 1.0 cent sales tax increment to the project for a period of five years up to a maximum amount of $2,000,874. The sales tax pledge will expire in 2024. Due to the emergence of the COVID crisis shortly after the new retailers opened, and other economic factors, the sales tax pledge is estimated to generate only $390,471, well short of the $2,000,874 originally estimated by revenue modeling. The Developer has requested an extension of the sales tax pledge for another ten years, without amending the maximum sales tax pledge of $2,000,874.
Item No. 4 - ORD - Amend WR Code of Laws re Liquor Authority
Pending
The City has an eight-member, Council appointed Liquor Licensing Authority (LLA) that is vested with the authority to grant and refuse liquor licenses and other types of applications and permits, and hold show cause hearings for alleged violations, all in the manner provided by law. Over the past few years, the eight-member board has struggled at times to reach a quorum, delaying Wheat Ridge businesses from obtaining licenses and other resolutions in a timely manner.
Item No. 5 - RESO - budget amendment for storm sewer repairs
Pending
In November 2023, Wheat Ridge citizens favorably supported an extension of a ½ cent temporary sales and use tax to be used for constructing sidewalk gaps, sidewalk, bike lane, roadway and drainage improvements. Recent storm sewer pipe failures have resulted in the need to access funds for these repairs. As bonds for these improvements will likely not be issued until the fall of 2024, at the earliest, it is necessary to declare the City’s intent to use bond proceeds for these improvements and, when financing occurs, to be reimbursed with proceeds from the bonds for these expenditures.
Item No. 6 - RESO - IGA with Denver for UASI
Pending
The State of Colorado received an Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) grant award for approximately $504,588 to purchase a mobile command post vehicle for the City of Wheat Ridge Police Department. Wheat Ridge is responsible to appropriate a 20.1% match of funds and to approve an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with the City and County of Denver to receive the mobile command post vehicle. The grant award amount may increase or decrease slightly before the vehicle is delivered. To account for this uncertainty, this supplemental budget appropriation will approve matching funds up to an amount not-to-exceed $115,000 to ensure adequate funding is available for the City’s required matching funds.
Item No. 7 - RESO - Jeffco Historical Landmark Designation
Pending
The Wheat Ridge Historical Society and the City of Wheat Ridge were approached by the Jefferson County Historical Commission about applying to the County Landmark Designation Program for the Wheat Ridge Historical Park and the Baugh House. Both properties can be submitted as a single application. As the City owns the buildings and properties, City Council support for the application to the county program is needed and Council would need to direct the Mayor to sign the Owner Consent Form that is part of the application.
City Council – Study Session
Mon, Apr 15, 2024 at 6:30pm
4 Agenda Items
Virtual and In-Person
Public's Right to Speak
Item No. 1 - MEMO - School of Mines Update
This hill along the south and southeast edge of Creekside Park regularly has minor landslides that push debris onto the Clear Creek Trail and into Creekside Park. Drainage from the hill also results in the Trail becoming icy in the winter. Throughout the 2023-2024 academic year, a Colorado School of Mines Capstone Project student team has analyzed the current state of the hill and provided recommendations and cost estimates for improving the ongoing stability, drainage, and sliding issues related to the hill. Their final project presentation on April 15th will provide a concise project overview.
Item No. 2 - MEMO - City Plan Update
The purpose of this study session is to provide City Council with an update on the City Plan planning process, including public engagement and preliminary findings from the existing conditions analysis completed thus far. Attachment 1 is a memo provided by the City Plan consultant, czb, which includes more details to support this study session. This is the first of four anticipated Council meetings on this project, with subsequent study sessions scheduled for June, September, and February 2025.
Item No. 3 - MEMO - 2J Sales Tax Effort Update
In November 2023, Wheat Ridge residents favorably supported an extension of a ½ cent temporary sales and use tax to be used for the following capital infrastructure projects: • Sidewalk, bike lane and street improvements on primary street corridors such as 32nd Ave., 38th Ave., 44th Ave, and Youngfield Street; • Filling sidewalk gaps and other sidewalk repair and replacement with an emphasis on major pedestrian corridors and routes to schools; and • Drainage and floodplain infrastructure improvements at priority locations in the city. Feedback from the community over the last several years, the bi-annual citizen survey, as well as the January 2023 City Council retreat formed the basis for these major project themes. Since approval of the tax extension, staff has developed a refined list of projects within each of the three themes. City leadership has considered other funding sources available for these specific projects, state and grant funding opportunities, staff capacity, as well as projects that span multiple council districts. Staff also prioritized projects that residents directly identified as being a top priority in the surveys. The emergency stormwater repairs, together with the estimated costs for the corridor, sidewalks and bikeways projects, exceeds $121 million. It is hoped that grants will provide additional resources to allow for design and construction of some of these improvements. Many projects fall into two or three of the major themes. As many projects have not been designed or fully scoped, the cost estimates for each are conservative. The projects and estimated costs for drainage improvements were developed at a very high level since the Stormwater Master Plan has just begun. Given the anticipated costs of the Stormwater Program, staff is recommending that only emergency stormwater repairs be funded with the sales and use tax revenue. Staff is seeking City Council confirmation on the proposed list of projects as well as the planned approach to implementation.
City Council – Special Study Session
Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 7:00pm
3 Agenda Items
Virtual and In-Person
Public's Right to Speak
Item No. 1 - MEMO - Lutheran Legacy Update
The purpose of this memo and the April 8 study session is to discuss the next two steps associated with future redevelopment at the Lutheran Legacy Campus: a zone change and a charter amendment.
Item No. 2 - MEMO - Neighborhood Traffic Issues
Traffic issues, primarily excessive speeds, are a continual complaint from the public. Citizens contact various departments, primarily the police department, to request speed enforcement on their streets. While the police department responds to these requests as time and resources allow, often, it is determined that there is not a speeding problem that is enforceable. In other words, the number of speeding vehicles does not warrant committing resources to enforce a minor number of the overall vehicles on the street. This results in frustration from citizens who often expect that all speeding vehicles should be ticketed to effect change. The city is attempting to address traffic issues throughout the community in a variety of ways that focus on not only enforcement but also education, and engineering. Education can assist in advising drivers, as well as pedestrians and bicyclists, of their responsibilities on the road and the rules of the road. Engineering attempts to modify the built environment either through temporary or permanent measures, to effect changes in driver behavior. An example of this is speed humps. Staff will present current efforts underway as well as some additional options for consideration by the City Council for implementation.
City Council – City Council Meeting
Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 6:30pm
4 Agenda Items
Virtual and In-Person
Public's Right to Speak
Item No. 1 - ORD - Amend WR Code of Laws for Public Hearings
Approved
Prior to the public hearing for a quasi-judicial application, the zoning code currently requires that the City send letter notice of the hearing to owners and occupants within 600 feet of the subject property. The proposed ordinance extends this letter notice to 1000 feet.
Item No. 2 - MOTION - Install art at the Ward TOD project
Approved
The Wheat Ridge Ward Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Project includes funding for public art. The process for selecting public art is defined in the Public Art Management Plan. Per this process, a public art piece by Tyler Fuqua titled “Mechan and Celestial Vines” has been selected by an appointed committee for recommendation to the Cultural Commission. The Cultural Commission reviewed the proposal and is recommending this selection to City Council for acceptance and purchase. The purchase price of $160,000 includes design, construction, installation, and documentation.
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Item No. 3 - RESO - convey ditch ROW with Lee & Baugh
Approved
The City is currently working towards the design and construction of a trail around Tabor Lake. The Lee and Baugh Ditch Company has legal rights-of-way and easements to inspect, use, operate, maintain, and repair the Ditch adjacent to Tabor Lake. This proposed license agreement would formalize and document the rights of both the Ditch Company and the City in the area near Tabor Lake and allow the City to install and maintain a non-motorized trail in this area.
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View all past meetings