Student safety at several busy street crossings near Glenwood Springs Elementary School (GSES) was top of mind for parents who spoke before Glenwood City Council at the regular Sept. 17 meeting.
After a student was hit and injured by a vehicle at 10th Street and Pitkin Avenue on the way to school recently, members of the school’s Parent Teacher Association (PTA) decided to approach the city’s leaders about making some school zone safety improvements.
“It’s kind of mayhem out there,” parent Connie Geiman said, as she and others described the usual morning rush-hour traffic with its mix of parents dropping off students at school, high school students driving to school, and commuters buzzing along Grand Avenue and side streets trying to get to work on time.
“Our youngest citizens need more protections,” she said, offering some ideas to create a better “safe walking corridor” for students.
The designated walking and biking route to GSES is on 10th Street, which crosses several busy intersections including Blake, Cooper, Grand, Colorado and Pitkin avenues.
Since the accident, the PTA has been organizing volunteer crossing guards to keep watch over students and help control traffic at 10th and Pitkin, in particular.
“We don’t believe this is a long-term solution,” PTA President Emily West said. “We’ve been asking for changes in this area for the last two years … merely meeting code is not sufficient.”
While recent Glenwood public works projects have brought pedestrian safety improvements to school zones around Sopris Elementary, Glenwood Springs High School and Glenwood Middle School, including raised speed bumps and better-delineated crosswalks, some parents said it feels like GSES has been “a bit forgotten.”
The designated school zone includes a 20 mph speed limit, with fines doubled for speeding.
Geiman pointed out that a new state law allows communities to extend safety zones up to 1,000 feet around a school, and to lower speed limits to 10 mph.
Grand Avenue, which doubles as Colorado Highway 82, could be included within the school zone if the city works with the state transportation department to make that happen, Geiman suggested.
City council members agreed the city needs to do more to address the situation, both near- and long-term. City Manager Steve Boyd said it’s “never okay” for a child to get hit at an intersection, and offered to meet with parents to come up with some solutions.
“We will lean into this,” he said.
Other matters
Additional comments from persons addressing items not on the evening’s agenda included followup thoughts on the recent discussion about bears and unsecured trash.
A bipartisan pledge was also introduced by Heather Exby and Debbie Bruell in support of the Garfield County election process ahead of the upcoming midterm elections. The pledge also opposes any outside interference in local elections.
As for the regular agenda, city council heard presentations from Stepping Stones, a Carbondale-based youth services program that’s looking for space to run its programs in Glenwood Springs; and from Habitat for Humanity of the Roaring Fork Valley. Habitat is busy marketing and working with its current renters to purchase units at the Carter L3 Condos in Glenwood Meadows, and is nearing completion of the Confluence project at 8th and Midland.
One current renter at the Carter explained that she is trying to buy the unit she now rents, but that obtaining financing is a challenge.
“If you’re poor enough to qualify for affordable housing, you’re too poor to qualify for financing,” she said.
That said, she added in support of Habitat, “If it doesn’t work out for me, it is working out for a lot of other people, and it means a lot.”
Glenwood Economic Development Specialist Jacob Zook gave an extensive report on socio-economic data for Glenwood Springs.
Notably, the city has 10,230 residents as of the latest data from the Colorado demographer; has nearly 12,000 jobs, with an average weekly wage of $1,396 and an unemployment rate of 3.1%; has an average home value of $864,000; and generates $2.4 billion in gross retail sales annually.
Short-term rentals
Finally, council approved amendments to the city’s regulations and permitting of short-term (vacation) rentals and accessory tourist units.
The regulations came up for review following a recent appeal for a permit that was denied for renewal, when it was determined that the unit in question was not actually being used as a short-term rental (STR). Rather, it was preventing a nearby property owner from obtaining a permit based on the city’s 250-foot STR separation rule.
The city’s Planning and Zoning Commission recently voted 6-1 to amend the rule to require STRs to be rented out at least 10 nights within the two-year permit period, up from the current minimum of two nights, and that the required accommodations taxes be remitted to the city.
City council, on a 4-2 vote (with Mayor Marco Dehm recusing himself as a permit holder), decided to require a minimum of 20 nights over two years and a minimum of $150 in taxes remitted.
Glenwood Springs currently has 125 active STR permits, and could accommodate 210 with the separation requirements, city staff reported.