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HomeMy WebLinkAboutStudy Session Notes 03-07-16STUDY SESSION NOTES CITY OF WHEAT RIDGE, COLORADO City Council Chambers 7500 W. 291h Avenue March 7, 2016 Mayor Joyce Jay called the Study Session to order at 6:30p.m. Council members present: Monica Duran, Janeece Hoppe, Kristi Davis, Zachary Urban, George Pond, Tim Fitzgerald, and Larry Mathews Absent: Genevieve Wooden Also present: City Clerk, Janelle Shaver; Parks & Recreation Director, Joyce Manwaring; Community Development Director, Ken Johnstone; and interested citizens. PUBLIC COMMENT ON AGENDA ITEMS APPROVALOFAGENDA ~ Staff Report(s) a) Parks and Recreation Department Accreditation-Joyce Manwaring Ms. Manwaring began with an 8-minute promotional video from CAPRA about the accreditation process. The Parks and Recreation Department has applied to become a nationally accredited agency through the Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies (CAPRA), sponsored by the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA). • The process began about 12-14 months ago and involves documenting compliance with 151 best practice standards in 10 categories. • The City's electronic report is due April 11 and the accreditation review team will be visiting June 20-22. Council will have an opportunity to visit with them. • Approval is awarded in October at NPRA's annual conference. • Less than 10 parks departments in Colorado are accredited right now. Council questions followed: • Costs? The cost is $1 ,200 annually. There is a cost for the accreditation team to come out the first time; renewal is done every 5 years. • Benefits? There are no real financial benefit. We already meet safety standards for insurance purposes-which saves money. • We have several long term employees, so this will be a wonderful document to have as they retire. Everything is written down. STUDY SESSION NOTES: March 7, 2016 Page -2- • What is the eventual goal for our parks? Ms. Manwaring reported that standards are different now. The industry no longer has "acreage per capita" standards because regions and needs vary. Another example: We have playgrounds in every park, but that is not the industry standard now. Our most recent Parks Masterplan was done in 2015. The last three masterplans have indicated we have adequate park acreage to serve our citizens; now our focus is on renovation and updating. • This year's annual meeting is in St. Louis, Missouri. b) Large Event Permit Policy -Joyce Manwaring The Parks Department has already created a large event packet which outlines needs and requirements for events, and provides information for event planners. That is under control and well received. Large events impact city resources at varying degrees and levels. Due to the increasing number of requests to use city facilities for large events, staff has set limits on the number of events accommodated annually. 2016 events are at capacity. Criteria for large event permits: • Who is requesting? (community/local/private; volunteers/schools, private for profit) • Direct benefit to WR community • Displacement of daily park users and activity • Disruption to park programs (e.g . baseball and soccer games) • Impacts to city resources (staffing for Police/ Public Works/Parks/coordination/in- kind services) • Historic Usage • Month the event is held Approved events for 2016: 1) Stober Elem Fun Run -Prospect Park-May 2) Prospect Valley Elem 5K -Prospect Park -October 3) Kite Flite festival -Anderson Park -April 4) 44th Ave Rumble and Car Show-Anderson Park-May 5) Leaves of Hope-Lutheran-June 6) Ridge at 38 Criterium -Ridge at 38 -June 7) Carnation Festival -Anderson park-August 8) Farmer 5000-WRHS-September 9) RidgeFest -Ridge at 38 -October 10)Trunk or Treat-Ridge at 38-October 11)Holiday Lighting-Ridge at 38-December • Miscellaneous smaller events can be approved . • The only fees: $50 to process permit (often waived); pavilion rental fee if in a park • The $50 fee is waived for all Localworks events, the Carnation Festival, the Kite Festival and the 44th Avenue Rumble STUDY SESSION NOTES: March 7, 2016 Page -3- Discussion followed. • What is considered a "large" event? When a park or street has to be closed. • The only events that close the streets are supported by Council (the Carnation Festival, the Kite Festival and the 441h Avenue Rumble) so they are not charged for street closure. • Ms. Manwaring gave an example of the Blues and Brews music festival that would like to move from Grandview in Arvada to Anderson Park. It was determined the time wasn't good (mid-July) and it would necessitate closing the park/pavilion and the pool (loss of use by residents and loss of revenue). We also don't have the staff to support it; Chief Brennan reports it's too much demand on our police department. Events like the kite festival and the Carnation Festival are different in that City Council approves the donation of in-kind services and cash donations. There was conversation about outside events coming in and whether we can support more events. Discussion points included: • Having tiered levels and fee schedules • Indirect benefits besides financial (publicity for the City); keep dialogue open • Cost/benefit ratio vs intrinsic value • The City of Golden's moratorium on large events • Local events should have first priority. • Ms. Manwaing will contact other communities to see what their fee schedules are. • If Blues and Brews would move to September should we consider them? • The costs for City staff should be a consideration . • Stay focused on non-profit events and fund raisers. Prefer no big for-profit events. • Surge pricing June through September (higher fees) • Don't want to have a policy that micromanages the Parks Department or takes away their flexibility. • The policy we come up with has to cooperate with what Localworks' intentions are. • Ridge at 38 events biggest issues are capacity and police needs. • Demands on the police department continue to grow; it's an issue. • The police department might have to make a policy about hiring off-duty police from other jurisdictions, if we don't have enough officers available. It's becoming an issue. • Ms. Manwaring emphasized again that capacity and staffing are the main issues - regardless if it's Localworks or other. • Can we get a ballpark idea of the positive financial impact for the City? There was consensus from Council to have staff bring back for discussion a policy with tiers and associated costs for the city staff. 2. Discussion concerning Freestanding Emergency Rooms -Ken Johnstone STUDY SESSION NOTES: March 7, 2016 Page -4- Freestanding emergency rooms (ER's) and urgent care clinics are a new land use trend. They've risen in popularity; there aren't many state regulations; they don't take Medicare/Medicaid patients; there's been considerable media attention. Last year the City received an application to rezone the SE corner of 381h & Wadsworth from MU-N to MU-C to allow for a freestanding emergency room. The Planning Commission voted 4-1 to recommend denial and the application was subsequently withdrawn. 'Freestanding emergency room' is not a specified use in the City's zoning charts, but given the hours of operation and heavy ambulance traffic staff sees it as more similar to the activity associated with a hospital rather than a medical office. Hospitals are allowed in the MU-C zone (with administrative conditional use permit), but not allowed in MU-N It's appropriate for the Council to consider whether there are operational or other aspects of this business type that require unique regulations. Options to consider include: • Require a special licensing process through Chapter 5 of the Code • Special use permit (SUP) or conditional use permit (CUP) through Chapter 26 (Zoning Code); could be administrative only or require Council approval • Limit what zone districts they are allowed in • Set a limit on the total number in the City • Create separation requirements Staff will continue to research this use. Discussion followed. • The state has yet to enacted any licensing requirements; would like to see what other states are doing regarding licensing. • Concerns about Medicare/Medicaid not being included. They will be concierge medical facilities and Lutheran will become the repository for low/no payers. • Is there a need? Lutheran's ER is very busy, but not at capacity. • Concerns about higher costs compared to urgent care (4-5 times higher). They aren't a trauma care level so they will send people to the hospital anyway. Hospitals charge a facility fee; they will too. Too many unanswered questions. • Use our sign code: Require them to indicate they are a clinic or urgent care-not an emergency room. They bill at hospital rates, but insurance may not cover it. Some only take certain insurance groups. They should be severely regulated as they border on being a scam. • There are land use issues and consumer issues. This product is not developed enough. We aren't consumer advocates; should be cautious about that. • Not comfortable with this as a land use until the industry/market settles its consumer issues. • Councilmember Davis, who works in the hospital industry, provided her insight: o There are certain state requirements for these freestanding ER's. STUDY SESSION NOTES: March 7, 2016 Page -5- o They can't turn people away. o She suspects this business model is not as successful as they initially thought it would be . o She doesn't think we need to be on the front edge of this. Councilmember Urban received consensus for a one-year moratorium on freestanding emergency rooms. 3. Elected Officials' Report(s) Kristi Davis commented if any councilmember still wants to do an article for this month's Gazette, the deadline is Wednesday. She provided the following update from Urban Renewal: • Quadrant lawsuit: The URA attorney has moved forward to support Quadrant on Part 1 of their lawsuit. • Quadrant contract: The contract language requires Quadrant to start construction at 381h & Wadsworth by March, 2016. The contract also provides that the Executive Director of the URA can grant an extension. City Manager Patrick Goff, as Executive Director of the URA, has signed a two-year extension for them. This was done administratively based on the action URA took on the lawsuit. • Spending TIF monies: The URA talked about having some guiding principles on how to spend TIF money. URA now has $120,000 from the WR Cyclery TIF and will continue getting $50,000 a year. The funds must be used for public improvements in the TIF area-in this case, the 381h Ave corridor. Under consideration are business grants, infrastructure (sidewalks, not drainage), art, bike racks, and benches. They will inform Council of their final plan. • URA will be seeing money from Perrin's Row. The arrangement with them is different. The City gets 50%; they get 50%. Tim Fitzgerald • He hadn't attended the Housing Authority meeting. Mr. Johnstone reported the HA made an amendment to the purchasing sale agreement for Fruitdale School. The changes are technical (some date changes, removal of reference to the meat company, etc.) • He noted the last Cre8 Your 38 meeting is this Thursday. • The WR Business District has awarded two small grants. One is a matching grant for Riccoli's to get a new sign. The WRBD is also working on a new grant category called Visual Impact. This Visual Impact grant will be open-ended to allow for creativity and give the Board some flexibility. STUDY SESSION NOTES: March 7, 2016 Page -6- Zach Urban reported the CML Policy Committee met February 12 to go through 27 bills to see if CML will support, oppose or remain neutral on them. They discussed the CML General Policy Statement looking at specific priorities in nine different areas: 1 Urban renewal and downtown development, 2 Land use authority, 3 Fiscal fair play, 4 Affordable housing, 5 Local tax authority, 6 Sustainability, 7 Transportation and infrastructure, 8 Public safety, and 9 Energy impacts on the economy. The bills are all in different stages of the legislative process at this point. He will report as things progress. Larry Mathews reported on the District 4 meeting. There was discussion on programs in the City. Localworks had a presentation and some people talked about parks. He senses the City still has an unfavorable business profile for people who want to do improvements or come into the City-specifically, we may have some regulations that are too stringent for non-structural work. Mayor Jay reported hearing a fascinating speech at the Metro Mayors Caucus about the future of the Colorado Water Plan. She reported that further conservation efforts will be asked of citizens to provide for all the people that are moving here and for agriculture. - She will be asking for reports from various groups that the City gives money to. ADJOURNMENT The Study Session adjourned at 8:09 p.m. a elle Shaver, Ctty Clerk NCIL ON March 28, 2016