The Carbondale Board of Trustees convened a special meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 3 to make up for the absence of a regular meeting on Nov. 26. All were present with Town Manager Lauren Gister joining via Zoom.
A quickly-approved “whopper of a consent agenda,” as described by Mayor Ben Bohmfalk, included appointment of Meredith Bullock to the Historic Preservation Commission, marijuana and liquor license renewals, a memorandum of understanding for older adult services in Garfield County including weekly congregate meals (costing Carbondale $23,252) and Traveler transportation for senior and disabled residents ($4,024), meeting minutes and a contract with CityInspect for building and planning software.
Two citizens spoke during the general public comments portion. First, former trustee Lani Kitching gave an update on efforts to secure Wild and Scenic designation for the Crystal River. Carbondale is not a formal stakeholder with municipal representation serving on that coalition.
Next, a Latigo Loop neighbor brought to the trustees’ attention an application coming before the Garfield County Commissioners on Monday, Dec. 9 to allow Spring Creeks Ranch, just outside Carbondale’s boundaries, to host an unlimited number of events each year with up to 1,000 people. Currently, the Gianinetti ranch, advertised as an event center and wedding venue, is limited to 30 events per year with up to 275 attendees.
“It’s rare for us to get involved at the board level with a county application,” Mayor Bohmfalk explained, offering they’ll evaluate how to respond depending on how Monday’s meeting goes.
During general updates by trustees, Colin Laird announced that the multi-jurisdiction Good Deeds affordable housing program has now closed on five units: three in Glenwood Springs and two in Carbondale. He called it “a real nice success in a short period of time.” Laird also requested calling a meeting with the Colorado Department of Transportation early in 2025 to evaluate improvements to Highway 133 including additional pedestrian crossings and a second roundabout.
Trustee Jess Robison advocated for implementing a four-way stop at the intersection of Hendrick and Main to alleviate the dangers posed by two large transformer boxes limiting visibility.
In response to a question at a previous meeting, Gister elucidated $13,000 has been budgeted to replace public trees devastated by the emerald ash borer.
Building codes
The first major item on the agenda was a discussion with Building Official Aaron Kuhns who has dedicated many hours to updating the municipal building code by eliminating redundancies and contradictions, increasing fees and adopting 2021 international building efficiency standards in line with the Town’s Roadmap to Net Zero for New Construction (adopted in 2021).
Kuhns has studied neighboring jurisdictions’ fee schedules to strike a balance, considering Carbondale hasn’t updated its own in 10 years, he said. One sticking point for trustees was a “green building fee” placeholder of 15% of the building permit cost which would be rolled back as developers meet efficiency standards. Kuhns called it a carrot, but several trustees considered it a stick. It was suggested instead that overall fees be reduced when green standards are met or exceeded.
The structure of the code will also be modified so all fees live in Appendix A, thereby they can be adjusted without amending ordinances. With additional feedback from the trustees, contractors and architects, Kuhns said he’s on track to have the changes ready to adopt around February.
Briefly, a resolution was unanimously passed modestly raising some fees for water services. The biggest change was a hike from $25 to $50 when someone’s water service has been shut off and must be reconnected. “In the past 13 months, we have had 13 shut-offs [and] 567 late fees,” Gister stated.
Short-term rentals
Moving along, the trustees discussed expanding the availability of short-term rental licenses to include up to 50 non-primary residences outside the Historic Commercial Core zone district where the number of licenses allowed is unlimited.
Trustee Erica Sparhawk said that after researching other communities she found only Glenwood Springs has a building inspection requirement and perhaps this could be removed from Carbondale’s ordinance “to take one more thing off the plate of our staff.”
Kuhns rejoined the discussion to advocate for keeping that requirement, at least for new licensees, and maintaining the right to an inspection if a complaint is drawn against the owner of the rental. “A single complaint can take more time than inspecting all of these,” he said.
With that guidance, the ordinance will be reworked for future adoption.
Aquatics Center
The final item on the agenda was a report from the Aquatics Center project team which began with an update on fundraising. Although the Town did not receive either of two grants it applied for, campaign manager Cynthia Colebrook was able to deliver good news. With a $250,000 gift from Bren Simon’s family foundation, plus $50,000 from the Wexner family, the capital campaign has raised almost $1.4 million so far. “I’m here to implore you all to make a contribution,” she said to the trustees, so 100% of all project leadership bodies have donated, incentivizing others. The minimum goal for fundraising is $1.6 million, Colebrook said, but $2.5 million would be ideal.
“The goal here is to build this pool once and to build it right,” said Parks and Rec Director Eric Brendlinger. He explained that $12,948,264 has been secured toward the project, exceeding the base project cost of $12,852,819 by $95,445. However, to include all add alternates, including a trellis and mounted photovoltaic array, flocculation system and plumbed and non-plumbed aquatic play elements, will cost an additional $563,089. “Obviously, if we spend all the contingency, we have another conversation,” he admitted.
After reviewing design changes with architect Land+Shelter, the conversation concluded with details on the Recreation Sales and Use Fund. “If we took $700,000 from that fund,” Gister said, “we’d still be left with a fund balance of 286%” — almost $4 million over the 80% reserved for operations in case of an emergency. “Going forward with some of the highest priority and less easy to do later add alternates is not really a risk for the Town,” Gister concluded. “And if we collect what I think we’re going to collect in fundraising, we probably won’t need it anyway.”
Laird responded, “If there’s a $4 million surplus in rec fund reserves, we should be using all of that first and not the general fund.” The rec fund is limited to recreation-related expenses, and there are other major projects unfolding, he argued.
Robison concurred, requesting the $1.6 million previously allotted from the general fund toward the pool be moved back and that amount be detracted from the rec fund instead.
“One variable we do not know is operational costs of the aquatics facility,” Brendlinger countered. “We also don’t know what level of cost recovery we have there.”
“We also don’t want to forget Chacos Park and matching grant funds,” added Gister.
Trustees will make major decisions on the Aquatics Center project at their next meeting, Dec. 10.
With that, the meeting ended around 9:20pm.