HomeMy WebLinkAbout01.14.20 DMC Minutes CITY OF BOULDER, COLORADO
BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS MEETING MINUTES
DOWNTOWN MANAGEMENT COMMISSION
NAMES OF MEMBERS, STAFF,AND INVITED GUESTS PRESENT:
BOARD MEMBERS: Knoff,Feldman, Shapins,Nuzum,Niemeyer(absent)
STAFF: Bowden(arrived at 4:08pm),Jones, Landrith, Mayotte
GUESTS: Chip(DBP), Gerhardt(BPD)
PERSON PREPARING SUMMARY: Leah Mayotte 303-413-7303
TYPE OF MEETING: Regular January 14,2020
Roll Call: Called to order at 4:04 p.m.
Approval of the November 12,2019 Joint Meeting Minutes
Without a quorum of individuals present at the previous meeting, the commission was unable to
approve the minutes.
Public Participation
None
Parks Update
Landrith gave an update on the public restroom project going on at Canyon and 9`h. The restroom
facility is being built in an attempt to solve the human waste problem. The restroom will be
gender neutral, will not lock from the inside and the operation hours will be from 9am—8pm.
Bowden reported about the asset management software utilized by Parks&Recreation; detailing
how it shows the age, condition and documents maintenance completed for every asset on the
mall. Bowden's main concerns were for the child play area and the water feature. The child play
area's surface is aging and will need to be repaired/replaced soon. The water feature also has
surface aging concerns as well as repairs/improvements needed for its underground
infrastructure.
Bowden also discussed Dark Skies compliant lighting,which has been tricky for the mall due to
the current historic fixtures. These fixtures were previously grandfathered in with the new
lighting requirements but will not be compliant soon. It is important to evolve and incorporate
these changes in the capital planning for the mall. Bowden mentioned several other items
affecting the mall including, brick repair and making the mall more family and ADA friendly.
Parks &Recreation is focusing on maintaining current assets first and foremost.
Police Update
Gerhardt began discussing the staffing for the Homeless Outreach and Pearl St. Mall teams. The
mall team should have six officers but is currently down to 3. Due to being short-staffed, the PD
is paying officers overtime to work Pearl St. Mall.
Gerhardt's last meeting will be the commission's next meeting on March 106i. He is retiring after
41 years of service. His position will not be replaced immediately, but most likely in June or
July. The Police Department is losing a lot of officers due to retirement and has been having
trouble staying fully staffed due to a difficulty in finding qualified applicants. The department
currently has around 20 officers in training. However, it takes about a year to fully train and
onboard a new officer.
Shapins asked Gerhardt to try to summarize the biggest issues that he thinks the board should
look at in regard to the Pearl St. Mall. Gerhardt responded with several items including the
partnership with Parks&Recreation and the 9`" Street bridge staffing issues. Gerhardt also
stressed the importance of striking a balance between making the mall welcoming while also
keeping an eye on what kinds of people it is attracting. He continued to discuss the trend of
losing businesses to high rents and that refreshing and rejuvenating the mall takes a lot of money,
and it also draws a lot of transient activity. He also talked about the double-edged sword that is
cleaning up after people—if we don't clean up after the transient population it can cause issues
with the city's water supply as well as present biohazards. On the flip side, cleaning up after the
transient population reinforces poor behavior.
Landrith asked Gerhardt about the bid for the open mall officer positions. Gerhardt mentioned
that Pearl St. Mall is not a bid position and that officers must be hand-selected for that team. The
team will be comprised of the same officers except for Officer Maynard who transferred to the
Homeless Outreach Team. The PD's priority is the streets of Boulder.
Nuzum brought up issues with transient folks camping in stairwells in downtown parking
garages and asked Gerhardt if any officers patrol these areas. Gerhardt reported that the officers
do not always know to go into the garages and asked that those who are finding people camped
out should contact the PD. This will help officers be aware and identify individuals that are
repeat offenders. Gerhardt addressed the importance of identifying the transient populace,
finding them housing and reacclimating them with their family and other support systems that
they know and trust. Jones reported that the maintenance team at Community Vitality has also
been doing sweeps daily. Bowden said she would look into potential supplemental money from
Community Vitality to look at increasing garage patrols.
Chip asked if there have been any enforcement or policy changes, which Bowden replied that
everything was status quo. She reported that this issue will be a topic of conversation at the
upcoming Council retreat. She also reinforced that issues stemming from the enforcement of the
camping ban are not always related to camping, they are often ticketed for another offense.
DBP Update
Chip reported that the operations team with DBP is working on the holiday lights removal. They
are hoping lights will be down by February 2"d. He also reported that the annual student banner
program produced some really powerful and beautiful artwork. As part of the banner program,
the partnership has been completing a banner hardware inventory as the integrity of many of the
banners is questionable, particularly on the east end of the mall. This is something that DBP is
working with the city to address.
Chip reported that DBP's pedestrian counting software provider announced that they were
closing in November. They have since found a good solution for a replacement that will allow
them to import the data from the previous software.
Chip reported that graffiti has been more frequent relative to many previous years and that staff
was doing its best to keep up with its removal.
Chip gave an update regarding the solar and staircase replacement in the 1100 Spruce and 1500
Pearl parking garages. The project is underway and has required a skillful management of the
necessary alley closures. The closure was handled with great care and all effected individuals
have been taken care of.
Chip then reported on upcoming event announcements including the annual DBP Awards
Luncheon,the expansion of the beer cage for Bands on the Bricks,the success and participation
of the Alley Artwork program, upcoming DBP membership renewals, and DBP's partnering with
the Boulder International Film Festival to sell tickets at the Pearl St. Visitor Information Center.
Landrith also added that March 27`h—April 4d' is Boulder Arts Week.
Shapins asked if there had been any progress in looking for available incubator/temporary
spaces. Chip responded that conversations have started and that the challenge comes from a lack
of qualifying spaces. In an effort to supplement the need for incubator spaces, DBP has been
looking into the Alley Activation Project and how this has affected nearby cities, specifically in
Fort Collins. Community Vitality's Sarah Wiebenson has also been working with the University
Hill Commercial Area Management Commission to identify potential pop-ups to rejuvenate the
retail space on The Hill. Bowden discussed the importance of collaborating with property
owners.
Shapins asked about who on City Council, other than Bob Yates,pays acute attention to
downtown. Chip reported that Bob Yates, Sam Weaver and Mark Wallach are all a part of the
Business Improvement District board and have been engaged in issues affecting downtown. The
BID Board has an open seat and it was discussed and decided that DMC members would rotate
responsibility for attending BID meetings.Nuzum agreed to attend the next BID meeting.
Matters from Commissioners
Nuzum has read a number of past documents and noticed that there is a lot of overlap between
the BID and the DMC. Nuzum expressed an interest in combining the BID and the DMC.
Bowden reported that although some of the topics are duplicative, the context, review and scope
of each board is different. Bowden discussed the possibility of joint conversations between the
two boards and that we will learn more about the most valuable similarities after the Council
retreat. Chip and Feldman agreed that there are many overlapping discussions and common
priorities. Chip recommended that the chairs of each board get together a couple of times a year
to keep each other updated.
Shapins discussed the desire for DBP to carve out some funds, take the lead and put together
common ground stakeholders to respond to and carry out big ideas. Shapins thinking is that DBP
has the ability to focus and is able to avoid the administrative requirements that sometimes delay
the city's efforts. Chip responded by explaining that he is in the process of understanding the
priorities and groundwork for current policies and projects,but he is open to having
conversations about what DBP can help with.
Feldman asked the other Commissioners what they wanted to accomplish in 2020 and voiced
that he wanted the group to be more focused on accomplishing those goals. Bowden followed up
by asking if there were particular issues, other than what was put in the numerous letters to
Council that have commonalities with other boards and commissions. To help in reviewing the
overlap between boards, please find each board and commission's letter to Council here.
Chip touched on a few of the commonalities he was aware of including mobility, access,
inclusivity, homelessness management, transportation and micro-mobility. The topic of micro-
mobility lead to a discussion on electric scooters. Bowden reported that they will be a topic of
discussion at the next Council Study Session. Boulder has extended its moratorium on electric
scooters until June of this year. Feldman responded by voicing concerns regarding antiquated
parking policies,parking minimums and the ineffectiveness of B-Cycle. Feldman discussed the
need to think and act.
Feldman then asked Chip to provide insight into the opinions and priorities of his constituents.
Chip explained that people generally don't want electric scooters downtown due the concern of
pedestrian safety as well as the potential issue of the scooters being docked or parked in parking
spaces. Bowden reiterated that resolving the issue of mobility it going to take trying several
different solutions, none of which will be perfect on the first go around. Community Vitality is
taking the approach to try different things and see what works. One example is the$3 evening
parking program which has shown measurable success in a short period of time.
Landrith went on to describe the warm reception of the$3 evening product with the downtown
late-night employee sector. Feldman responded that a previous evening permit was available and
wasn't used; he asked what made the new product different. Landrith and Bowden explained that
the additional hour, the availability in all parking garages and the ability to pay as you go have
made a huge difference. Collaboration with customers such as eTown Hall has also helped make
the program a success. A side-by-side comparison of utilization in December 2018 vs. December
2019 shows that evening utilization is up, and customers are parking for longer amounts of time.
Jones briefly reviewed the projects coming up for Community Vitality including the pay-station
replacement,parking pricing updates, the city-wide retail strategy, deferred maintenance and
other projects that will set us up for success in coming years.
Shapins asked for an update on art project progress in the Civic area and the East Bookend.
Bowden responded to explain that much of the progress is dependent on the direction of Alpine-
Balsam. The Sister-City Plaza will be worked on next with the potential of a donated piece.
Other art pieces are still in the permitting process and the progress on the East Bookend has
stalled. Alpine-Balsam project has no end in sight,but it is mentioned in at least two of the letters
for work planning in 2020.
Lastly, Feldman brought up Commission recruitment and asked if there were any interested
candidates. Bowden responded that there were no candidates currently but be sure to provide the
link for commission recruitment. The link can be found here. Bowden would also get an answer
as to whether the recruits need to be a resident in the district.
Matters from Staff
Landrith reported that the solar panel project was going well so far at the 11 th and Spruce garage.
Communications and outreach have been successful with help from Community Vitality staff
and DBP. Communications went out via email, flyers and face-to-face to help address the closure
of Morrison Alley. The majority of concerns have been mitigated. Feldman said the permit has
not been approved; however,the work will migrate to the 15th and Pearl garage once the permit
is released. The steel for 15th and Pearl has been ordered and the project is expected to wrap up
in June. Project staff was just notified of the push back into June and is working to mitigate the
potential impact of the project on Memorial Day weekend. Bowden wants to ensure that
everyone is kept safe during these peak times.
Jones reported that the contract with Burke Builders is being finalized and the steel fabrication is
underway. The project will progress one staircase at a time to minimize the impact on the entire
facility. The project team is currently coordinating on the plan for how to tackle the stairwells
and in what order.
In addition to the solar and staircase projects,Jones reported on the work underway for the St.
Julien to keep the facility in tip-top shape, deferred maintenance at the Randolph garage and the
pay-station replacement project.
The new stations will allow parkers to use a touch screen to pay in advance. The kiosk screens
can also be used to display customizable messages. Additionally, the kiosks will not require a
printed ticket and will be compatible with a variety of apps to pay for and monitor their parking.
New stations will be durable in weather,provide a better customer experience, will utilize 4G
data to improve connectivity, will report parking data in real time, and have the ability to employ
on-demand parking pricing. Bowden emphasized that we will be expanding options, not
changing them.
Landrith turned the discussion towards improvements with EcoPass distribution. He described
that customers will now be able to redeem their EcoPass 40 hours a week at the Access&
Parking Services office. This will mean less waiting and less paperwork for both customers and
staff. The communication strategy includes a large photo-real infographic to direct people from
the Visitor Information Center to the Access and Parking office. Additionally, Landrith is in the
process of slowly rolling out a digitally formatted authorization form for further convenience.
Landrith also mentioned that CV staff would be completing an EcoPass audit by sending
downtown tenants a roster for their review. Awareness of the program has been raised,which has
kept EcoPass utilization up, despite deactivating roughly 2,200 EcoPasses. Much of this has to
do with the entrepreneurial spirit and consistent turnover in the tech industry.
Feldman asked if there are any plans to change the route of the HOP. He voiced his concerns in
that the route hasn't been changed or updated in a long time and that it was losing ridership as a
result. Many community meetings were held and lots of time was spent figuring out a better
route for the HOP to increase ridership, save money and be more efficient. The new route would
provide more access for Boulder Junction as well. Jones responded that part of the challenge
with changing the route is that there is new leadership in transportation. Jones said he would
mention Feldman's request at the upcoming meet and greet for the new transportation director.
Jones also mentioned that the new proposed route would require new vehicles, which required
funding not available at this time.
Bowden requested a confirmation of the upcoming meeting schedule and hopes to align the
meetings with anticipated topics. Feldman's last meeting will be on March l Otn
Meeting Adjourned: 5:34 p.m.
NEXT MEETING: March 10, 2020
APPROVED BY: DO NA MENT COMMISSION
`Attest:
Heather Hayward, Secretary Eli Feldman, Chair