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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06.03.24 - Study Session NotesCITY OF WHEAT RIDGE, COLORADO STUDY SESSION NOTES Hybrid - Virtual Meeting June 03, 2024 1. Call to Order Mayor Starker called the Study Session to order at 6:30 p.m. 2. Attendance Council Members present: Scott Ohm, Jenny Snell, Korey Stites, Dan Larson, Janeece Hoppe, and Rachel Hultin, Leah Dozeman, and Amanda Weaver. Also present: City Manager Patrick Goff; Sr. Deputy City Clerk Margy Greer; Community Development Director Lauren Mikulak, Planner Scott Cutler, and other staff and interested residents. 3. Public’s Right to Speak None. Wheat Ridge Speaks: There were no public comments from Wheat Ridge Speaks. 4. Accessory Dwelling Units Update Issue This memo provides an update to City Council with lessons learned now that Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) have now been allowed for over 1.5 years. The grace period to legalize existing ADUs will expire on August 15, 2024. This memo serves a few purposes: 1. Updates Council on how the new and existing ADU approval process is going, 2. Discusses potential changes and extensions to the grace period for existing ADUs, and 3. Updates Council on how state legislation may impact the City’s current ADU requirements. Staff Reports City Planner Scott Cutler gave a staff presentation to Council. Council approved the original ordinance for ADU’s in July of 2022, and it became effective in August of 2022. He explained there were three discussion topics, status of ADU’s, staff recommendations regarding grace period for existing ADU’s, and implications of the HB11-241152 state legislation and the two new rules statewide. Since August of 22, there have been 16 ADU’s permitted, 12 approved and pending or under construction, 4 completed, and 13 existing ADU’s have been legalized, and 1 still in staff review, not yet permitted. He commented that additional public education would be a good idea, but data shows the city rules are working well. One goal of the original ordinance was to establish a process for existing ADU’s and a grace period to bring them to compliance. Once the grace period has expired, any ADU’s on property will have to be brought to code. He stated staff has received 23 applications since the ordinance went into place. Even though not at 100% legalization, process is going well. Staff recommendation is to extend the grace period 2 more years to August of 2024. There are ADU’s out there, that could benefit from this. He said they do not have the capacity to review every property in the city. Staff believes without this extension; owners will be less likely to come forward. Would only apply to any property in existence prior to August 2022, as anything after that should have fallen under the new regulations. People need to be aware of the opportunity to bring these into legal status. Staff would like to send out communication and education around these new laws. Council Comments • Council Member Larson stated there had been a 2-year grace period and now staff is asking for another 2-year period and asked if there a way we can say that we will never extend again. Cutler explained never extending again, hasn’t yet been discussed. • Council Member Ohm asked for the reasoning behind extending. Cutler stated people may not be aware, don’t have the money, and the city can’t invade privacy asking to see every ADU. Ohm asked how the program was advertised, as he is not sure if he is favor of the extension. If Council does decide to grant the extension, he stated he would like to have something in place to ensure compliance. • Council Member Weaver stated she didn’t’ have a question, but she stated she felt the opposite. She stated that the idea is compliance and if more people comply in the next two years, that would be a good thing. Weaver stated that being punitive is not the best way to gain compliance. • Council Member Hoppe agreed with Council Member Weaver, asking they consider, that some properties with the ADUs that don’t have the finances to update this, may sell to someone who can. She said that it may exist that down the road, they can get a loan to upgrade. In favor of extending now, not sure about extending beyond that, but the goal is to ensure safe properties in the community. She also mentioned that ADUs are expensive to build, not surprised there are not a lot of new apps, but she wants to get existing ones into compliance. • Council Member Hultin agreed with Council Member Hoppe. She stated the strategy was to have affordable living housing. She was not expecting to have as many new ones as we have, so wanted to call this policy out as extremely successful. She supported the 2-year extension and wants to address the matter two years from now. She stated she does not want to be stringent and say no further extensions from here. She stated she wants to celebrate that we have done a good policy here. • Council Member Dozeman stated she was generally in support of this, due to already mentioned items. She stated she is concerned that the 6 didn’t move forward and questioned how likely is it that they will come into compliance, and how many more are there have that mirror this, rather than getting into compliance. She asked about the kind of outreach that was done. Cutler remarked that staff is not sure how many are out there, for the 6 or 7 still in the process, it is a case-by-case basis. He stated some are easy and may do it eventually, and others are life safety issues, that will be more expensive. There is such a wide range of quality, he stated he couldn’t speak to each property individually. Director Mikulak expounded on clarification of Cutler’s remarks and added additional information around adding kitchen space in the basement without adding a separate entrance, so that is not an ADU. So many issues are separate from the ADU issue itself. Dozeman asked how the city’s proceeds with those that have life safety issues. Cutler explained that there is a building inspection and all of that is documented within the city. Lauren Mikulak explained the separate entrance has been the biggest issue. She also explained that it has taken the department time to calibrate their inspections as well. • Council Member Stites asked what other outreach is planned at this point. Director Mikulak explained, ADU’s are a little contentious, the city has not done full court press, but has a moment with the new state laws, to capitalize on positive messaging around this. Stites also stated we keep the end goal in mind, which is housing. Heard a lot of people state when this first came up, saying it was in the pocket of the developer. This shows us the issue is the exact opposite of that. He stated he felt the need to move forward with the 2-year grace period. The more people we get into compliance the better. • Council Member Weaver wanted to clarify she no longer has out houses at the farm. She asked if the city has the fund that was created for affordable housing, for some of those places, where they are close, but are needing a grant, might funds be available as part of the other funds created along with taxes. City Manager Patrick Goff stated it could be an option, staff is planning to come back later in the year to discuss how those funds should be spent. Weaver stated ADUs are a home grown way to offer affordable space. City Manager Goff states staff will keep an eye on Prop 123 funding. • Council Member Ohm asked to put this into two different buckets. One being an extension, and two, if someone has one of these and isn’t working toward compliance, he wanted to know if the city had any liability and what will the punitive fines be if someone is caught running an illegal ADU. We have a duty to protect life-safety. Director Mikulak states they must fall into existing building codes, any new ones would have to fall under updated building codes, etc. From a building code liability, there is no liability. Ohm expressed why have a deadline and asks why instead we don’t have a criterion. Mikulak explains that hasn’t been contemplated yet. • Council Member Snell stated that she supported the 2-yearr grace period. What she has heard in conversation is that this is a great gift for those who have elderly family members or transitioning family members to give them a place to be. Sounds like some people may be afraid to ask questions, would be in support to help get the word out with an educational event. • Council Member Hultin asked if the staff had a system which captures inquiries about ADUs so that Council can inform residents of the program. Director Mikulak states they have had this in place since the Ordinance passed. Hultin asked about running a notification in the Gazette about non-conforming. She stated two groups of people at the opposite end of the age spectrum, she would guess are those without the education, and thinks there is a way to educate them. She wanted to acknowledge the time it takes to build an ADU. Planner Cutler advised that all the State legislation is listed in the Memo for this Agenda item. Owner occupancy, Size Requirements and Setbacks are the only three requirements that Wheat Ridge is not already in compliance with. The city has the option to decide if they want to comply with the State legislation on this or not. Council members asked questions about the new state legislation as well as current City Code and Charter. Director Mikulak explained to Council, that they are looking for a consensus to move forward to track this going forward moving toward State compliance, and then would bring back an Ordinance once more information and clarification on all of this was obtained. Mayor asked for a consensus to move forward. Consensus received from Council on the ADU compliance extension, as well as consensus to move forward on State Legislation compliance. 5. STR Code Updates Issue City Council enacted legislation concerning the licensing and enforcement of short-term rentals (STRs) in February 2021. Since that time, staff has worked to implement the legislation by licensing STRs, collecting the applicable lodgers’ tax, and enforcing the codified regulations. At the regular business meeting on February 12, 2024, Councilor Ohm raised a concern regarding the exemption of townhomes in Mixed Use-Neighborhood (MU- N) zone districts from the whole home licensing cap and, with the support of other members of Council, requested the issue come forward for discussion. Since the STR regulations were put into place about three years ago, staff have additional suggestions for Council’s consideration that might support stronger code enforcement. The enclosed Report includes suggestions to remedy the townhome cap exclusion in mixed- use zone districts, strengthen regulations for marketplace facilitators and align the annual license-cap reporting period to a calendar year. Staff Reports City Manager Goff, Deputy City Manager Alli Scheck, and Finance Manager Mark Colvin presented this item to Council. Deputy City Manager Scheck introduced Finance Manager Mark Colvin, Revenue Supervisor Rachel Monte, and the new Compliance Officer Leo Lopez. Scheck advised council that all were present to answer questions if necessary. She went on to explain some challenging situations with STRs where calls were being received, stating the City was at a 66% compliant rating with these listings when Leo started and now the City has improved to almost 88% compliant. Also explained that we are now at our max STR rate, and so this is now becoming more challenging. Finance Manager Colvin then let Council know they would be giving a background and then giving staff recommendations around this issue. Colvin thanked Councilor Ohm for his work on this issue, and addressing what was referred to as the Townhome loophole. Finance Manager Colvin expressed things that have worked, challenges faced, etc. around short-term rentals and the marketplace facilitators, who market these for the rental period. Council Comments Council members expressed thanks to the staff and to Councilor Ohm for pointing out all these short-term rental updates and suggestions. Several Councilors asked clarifying questions around the comments they had previously received, and if the fee schedule was stringent enough. Council Member Hoppe commented being stricter around these fees. She also stated that it is evident that staff worked very hard to satisfy all notes and points that Council had previously pointed out, and thanked them for paying attention to, and working diligently to bring this to fruition. Mayor asked for consensus to move this issue forward. Consensus was obtained. 6. AHS Implementation Inclusionary Housing Zoning Program Issue The purpose of this memo and the June 3 study session is to discuss the implementation of an Inclusionary Housing Zoning (IHZ) program as recommended by the Affordable Housing Strategy (AHS) and Action Plan adopted by City Council in January 2023. Staff Reports Community Development Director Lauren Mikulak introduced Housing Coordinator Terrance Ware, who has been with the city for 6 months. Mikulak explained that he had brought a lot of experience in the Denver metro area with him to the City of Wheat Ridge, and explained he is by far the expert in the department. Ware explained to Council that he spent many years at HUD in the disaster recovery division, which revolves around housing. Ware spoke about his background, covered the definition of inclusionary housing, compared Wheat Ridge to other cities, discussed the program structure and components, and finalized the presentation with next steps. He also individually explained all six staff recommendations on this item. Council Comments Council members thanked Housing Coordinator Ware for his presentation, and expressed grateful feelings that Wheat Ridge has such a knowledgeable employee to present to them. Discussion evolved around fees in lieu, lack of land in Wheat Ridge, moving toward making current rentals more quality, and an holistic approach to Affordable Housing. Comments were made around median income in Denver and the indications that the income levels in Jefferson County may be higher, and requests that updated data be used moving forward. Mayor asked for a consensus from Council on the recommended steps. Consensus was obtained. 7. Staff Reports Director Mikulak talked about the City Plan being live on What’s Up Wheat Ridge. 8. Council Reports Council discussed events they had attended in the previous week, and upcoming events for Councilors and residents alike to attend in the following week. They thanked residents who put these events together and volunteered their time on behalf of the community. Council Member Larson read a statement about D-Day and Memorial Day, recognizing his family’s part in these historic events. Adjournment Mayor Starker adjourned the meeting at 9:23 pm. _________________________________ Margy Greer, Sr. Deputy City Clerk ________________________________ Korey Stites, Mayor Pro Tem