The Glenwood Springs City Council passed a series of ordinances on first reading dealing with topics including housing, drive-through restaurants, emergency services and public consumption of alcohol at a downtown park during its Thursday, Nov. 20 meeting.
All council members were present in-person for the second regular meeting of the month. No members of the public were on hand to speak to any items, on or off the agenda.
Mayor Pro-Tem Erin Zalinski took a minute under Council Announcements to acknowledge the Colorado Water Conservation Board’s vote the day before to accept the Shoshone hydropower plant water rights, as proposed by the Glenwood-based Colorado River Water Conservation District.
The River District, with support from Western Slope local governments including the City of Glenwood Springs, plans to purchase the water rights from Xcel Energy for $99 million, which would ensure those flows stay on the Western Slope in perpetuity and are not diverted to the Front Range.
Following approval of the consent agenda, Council approved several ordinances.
The first dealt with combining two advisory boards on housing, the long-established Glenwood Housing Commission and the Workforce Housing Financial Advisory Board. The latter board was established following voter approval of Ballot Question 2C in 2022, which imposed a 2.5% lodging tax to fund workforce housing efforts.
As both boards deal with housing, City staff recommended combining them. Council unanimously agreed.
The second ordinance had to do with allowing drive-through restaurants as a special permit use in the City’s Resort Zoning District. The zone district includes the section of Glenwood Meadows where the two Marriott hotels are located, and the area near Iron Mountain Hot Springs, advised City Planner Emery Ellingson.
The ordinance passed 4-3, with Councilors Steve Smith, Mitchell Weimer and David Townsley opposed over concerns about increasing traffic — especially if plans were to involve a mega-size drive-through facility, as have become common with chains like In-N-Out Burger and Chick-fil-A.
“These can readily become high traffic generators,” Smith said. “We should be looking for ways to reduce, even eliminate drive-through commercial facilities, not adding new opportunities for them.”
Next, a separate pair of ordinances related to police, emergency medical and fire services provided by the City.
The first laid the framework for adding to the City’s development code a new impact fee, to account for increases in demand for police, fire and ambulance services whenever new construction occurs.
The second would establish a fee for any locations, namely long-term care facilities, where there tends to be “excessive alarms,” including some that involve non-emergencies that could be dealt with by the nursing staff on site rather than calling EMS, explained Glenwood Chief of Public Safety Joseph Deras.
After some discussion, both ordinances were approved unanimously. Proposed fee schedules will be presented to City Council at a later time.
Another pair of ordinances dealt with a concern brought to City staff’s attention regarding the allowance of open containers of alcohol in Centennial Park, located at the corner of Ninth Street and Grand Avenue.
Open consumption of alcohol is allowed in some parks and public spaces, such as Two Rivers and Sayre parks and Bethel Plaza, where public events and larger private gatherings are permitted. City Council agreed 6-1 to not allow open containers at Centennial, a much smaller pocket park that does not typically host events.
The discussion did beg a question from Councilor Ray Schmahl, who voted against the measure, as to why some parks would be treated differently than others. City Attorney Karl Hanlon said the ordinance deals with “a particular problem in a particular park,” so in that case it isn’t discriminatory.
Some Council members wanted to look at other parks, such as the new North Landing, for possible open container prohibition.
A related ordinance that better defines Centennial Park as “parkland” passed unanimously.
Also approved were two routine ordinances related to the 2026 City budget, one certifying the mill levy (property tax assessment) for the downtown General Improvement District, and the other certifying the general mill levy for the City.
Under the council member comments portion of the agenda, Mayor Marco Dehm brought up a request by the Downtown Development Authority to split the cost (up to $15,000 from the City’s Tourism Fund) to pay for holiday lighting along the newly renovated section of Sixth Street, and on Seventh Street between Colorado and Blake. The City already spends about $50,000 per year to light Grand Avenue during the holidays.
As it was a last-minute request, two Council members, Smith and Schmahl, were opposed, saying such expenses should be planned farther in advance.
A couple of FYIs from the meeting:
• On or around Dec. 1, there will be some brush burning going on near Linwood Cemetery on the east side of Glenwood.
• An afternoon executive session is planned for City Council’s next regular meeting date, Dec. 4, to discuss legalities surrounding permitting for the planned South Bridge project.