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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07.14.20 DMC MinutesCITY OF BOULDER, COLORADO BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS MEETING MINUTES DOWNTOWN MANAGEMENT COMMISSION NAMES OF MEMBERS, STAFF, AND INVITED GUESTS PRESENT: BOARD MEMBERS: Shapins, Niemeyer, Nuzum, Knoff STAFF: Jones, Woulf, Bray, Wyton (BPD), Hayward GUESTS: Chip (DBP) PERSON PREPARING SUMMARY: Heather Hayward, (303) 441-4191 TYPE OF MEETING: Regular July 14, 2020 Roll Call: Completed. Called to order at 4:06 p.m. Approval of the May 12, 2020 Joint Meeting Minutes Nuzum moved to approve the May 12, 2020 minutes. Shapins seconded. All in favor. Approved. Public Participation None. Consent Items Consent Items - No questions. Consent Items stand. Shapins moved to approve. Nuzum seconded. Approved. Boulder Police Department Update Sergeant Wyton reported on police activities in downtown. He discussed morning sweeps and said that people are being cooperative. Things are improving and looking much better than when this commission last met. The restroom hours have been modified and that seems to have worked well. The team has increased by one officer, so they now have two officer teams on each end of the week. They are still limited with enforcement. Eleven reports were taken yesterday on stolen bikes. Fireworks are an issue as they are in every community right now. Fireworks have been a bigger problem this year. They’ve been using primarily an education approach regarding mask wearing and social distancing. The Homeless Outreach Team is providing masks. Regarding encampments, the BPD, Parks and (PW) Streets are doing cleanups with ServPro at targeted hot spots. At night, the officers have been writing camping tickets where they can. DBP Update Chip reported that Downtown Boulder Partnership has moved into stabilization mode. He discussed some of the items from the DBP Update document, including the first virtual Band on The Bricks to take place on July 14. This will be a fundraiser for the Downtown Boulder Foundation. Chip also stated that DBP is in conversations with Boulder Community Health and others regarding testing/screening for downtown employees. DBP are putting together a task force to find out how DBP can support businesses post- summer in more challenging times to come. Chip also discussed the Intercept survey they are working on in partnership with the Visitors Bureau and Community Vitality. The initial data is showing that there are lots of visitors and that over 40% surveyed are coming from outside Boulder/Denver metro area. Chip said they now have a pedestrian counter and are seeing a lot of traffic and a bit more on the West End. It will be hard to manage to how people socially distance downtown. They are encouraging the importance of mask wearing. Shapins talked about opportunities to retrofit the mall and discussed issues of crowding downtown. He suggested deck structures on top of current flower beds. Matters from Commissioners Niemeyer commended the effort of city staff in getting outside dining process handled so expeditiously and stated that this was a life saver to many businesses. Niemeyer had questions regarding the DMC commissioner vacancy. Jones discussed that there had been a second round of interviews prior to COVID, but that he would check back on the status. Shapins discussed issues on the east side of Pearl with pedestrian congestion and that people need to walk through areas where people are eating. Shapins suggested that too much space has been given to cars versus pedestrians in that area. Jones said that the option was provided to businesses on the east of Pearl to close three blocks. It was determined that the concentration of restaurants and retailers on the east end would have generated the same amount of activity as the west end. The HOP route was moved over to Walnut to make the east end more accommodating. The formal application process has closed but reopening the process could be considered if there were a large number of applications. Chip reported that there was some controversy with businesses on both ends of Pearl regarding closing traffic. While a lot of people are excited about eating outdoors, there are still a lot of businesses that support the desire for pickup. The momentum on the East end was against closing the street. People are adapting and trying to make it work. Shapins said he hopes that East Side options will be considered and that new solutions will be needed. Matters from Staff 2021 Community Vitality Recommended Budget Woulf reviewed the 2021 recommended budget. The overall impact of COVID on the General Fund is significant and there’s been a 17-25% decrease in revenue. In response, Community Vitality was initially asked to reduce their budget by 10%. Community Vitality was then asked to reduce an additional 10% of mostly ongoing reductions in 2021 across all funds. They will have flexibility with GID’s depending on revenue impacts. CAGID will see some revenue impacts. Based on numbers provided in the reductions, they were asked for an additional 7% General Fund reductions. COVID Response and Recovery They are getting close to finalizing a portion of CARES Act funding. The cities across Boulder County and the County had to come to an agreement as a prerequisite to access CARES Act funds. A good portion of these funds will be used for reimbursable expenses, but it can also be used for new expenses from now through the end of year. They are particularly interested in key areas of small business support. Woulf discussed COVID Impacts such as a decrease in on street occupancy. Street parking is ramping up but is still at 50% of normal. There has been a decrease in garage usage due to lots of teleworking. Trends they are watching will include work from home policies and public transportation habits. They are also looking at commercial vacancy rates and timing of large events and the university status. 2020 and 2021 Budget Reductions Reductions taken included furloughs, a hiring freeze and eliminations of several positions. Elimination of positions was not taken lightly and will have a customer service impact. Eliminations resulted in a 16- 17% reduction of our entire work force. The eliminations will save about $195,000 this year and $270,000 overall, mostly in CAGID. Reductions were also made in Capital Projects. The biggest impact was in postponing technology enhancements. With less eyes on the ground, they will be pushing for the technology enhancements if possible, even though they’re postponed in 2020. Fund Balance Application Woulf stated that it’s a best practice to apply operating reserve in a situation like this. He would not suggest using all of the fund balance, but they are looking at using $1.5-$1.6 million for CAGID going into 2021. That would still leave CAGID with a healthy fund balance. 2021 CV Budget Reductions Woulf reported that the initial 10% recommended reductions included reduction of scope of Capital Projects. In order to get to a 10% reduction, they would need to reduce Economic Vitality programming. Among other things, this would mean no new expansion and eliminating the flex rebate program. An additional 7% reduction would require additional service reductions. This would impact both CAGID and UHGID. If travel habits change and this becomes an underutilized program, then they may need to look at a larger restructuring of the EcoPass program. If they need to reach this reduction without changes to the EcoPass program, they would need to look at staffing reductions. CAGID Tenants and Rent Deferment Woulf stated that they have a number of tenants in CAGID owned properties. In response to COVID, they offered deferred rent for April through June, payable beginning in July. For some tenants, that might not be enough. Currently the City is not open to rent abatement, but they are looking for solutions with their property managers and tenants. Nuzum asked if the amount requested for the EcoPass had changed. Woulf stated that for 2020, they will receive a credit for the time that RTD did not charge. The amount of credit is unknown at this point. Niemeyer discussed that the restaurant community has been supported by outdoor dining, PPP loans, etc., but the expectation from large percentage of restaurant community is that they’re going dark this winter. They will either close permanently or until spring. It will be a lean and painful winter for retail and restaurants and could be far worse than the current budget cuts are taking into account. Approval of the 2021-20216 Capital Improvement Plan and the Current Staff Approach to the 2021 Community Vitality Budget Shapins moved to approve. Niemeyer seconded, Nuzum thirds. All in favor. Approved. AMPS Jones reviewed the AMPS implementation proposed timeline. He reported that they are in contract negotiations with Walker Consultants out of Denver and anticipate a Notice to Proceed by August 1st. The timeline outlines three touches to commissions and boards and city council. The first will be at the end of the fourth quarter of this year. The work will be largely complete by mid-year 2021. At the end of this year they will present a parking pricing assessment. Walker will also be doing a review of the Neighborhood Parking Program and will be presenting options to move forward. Jones discussed that they would like to get two members of the commission as stakeholders as they pursue this work with the consultants. Nuzum stated that she would be interested, depending on the time involved. Shapins asked about whether the strategy is taking the COVID impact into account. Jones confirmed that the plan is looking at the COVID impact on a variety of fronts. Public engagement is a key part of the conversation on curbside management. The consultant team will be using an online digital hub to gain information. They will be reviewing parking utilization because they don’t know what future demand will look like. They will be tapping into some of the technology advancements and people’s new comfortability with technology in this COVID environment. Shapins moved to adjourn. Niemeyer seconded. Meeting Adjourned: 5:48 p.m. NEXT MEETING: September 8, 2020 APPROVED BY: DOWNTOWN MANAGEMENT COMMISSION Attest: ________________________ _________________________________ Heather Hayward, Secretary Jerry Shapins, Chairperson Jerry Shapins (Sep 14, 2020 15:23 MDT)