12-20-22 Vail Town Council Agenda Breakdown
A VailSticky guide to Vail Town Council Meetings: for folks that don’t have time for that.
Participation in government is a luxury - by making participation more accessible and understandable, we can make it less exclusive. Here you’ll find:
Summary of the Evening Agenda & Afternoon Agenda
Agenda Summary
Afternoon Agenda: 12/20/22 Vail Town Council
Destination Stewardship Plan Review: Review of the 3rd and 4th pillars: Invigorate Vail's Spirit and Advance Vail Stewardship as a Global Model
Hold back judgement this until the full scope of the stewardship plan is publicly available (which it should be Jan 3).
Read the presentation and the narrative.
Note: Pillar 4 - Advance Vail Stewardship as a Global Model references documents still in draft phase - but these will be critical to the plan so keep an eye on this space.
DRB: here.
PEC Update: 12/12/2022 was huge for PEC - both in value and volume…the meeting was 4 hours long. You can watch it here or read the official minutes. These are the highlights:
West Vail Master Plan zoning has been tabled.
Spoiler Alert: West Middle Creek has PEC approval to be rezoned for affordable housing! The Vail Town Council’s voted unanimously to ask PEC rezone West Middle Creek for affordable housing on May 17th, 2022. 209 days later the Planning and Environmental Commission voted to send the recommendation of rezoning to the council! This is an important step forward that should be celebrated. It is also an important case study in the systemic obstacles and delays that affordable housing development faces in the Town of Vail.
Art in Public Places: here
Q3 Investments: update
Events Funding: The way that Vail selects and evaluates events was changed in order to better assess value to the community and return on investment. The ‘new process’ took a year to establish - the result of that new process produced a list of events and funding recommendations which the Town Council reviewed on 11/15/22.
The Council took issue with funding recommendations for 3 events - in response the Committee on Special Events (CSE) took another look at these events on 12/7 taking into consideration the Town Council comments….CSE confirmed that they meant what they said the first time.
The point of this ‘new events process’ is to reduce subjective bias when awarding funding to events by using standardized metrics of evaluation. It seems counter-intuitive for to undermine the selection/funding process before the process plays out completely at least once.
The (3) events in question are detailed in this memo…for additional context on event funding for other events in 2023 see the original funding recommendation here.
Appeal to Evergreen PEC Approval: The Evergreen Lodge redevelopment was approved by the PEC to the displeasure of several people that live/own property in the immediate vicinity. Appeals typically take place when a person with standing (in the legal sense, not social status) believes that the appropriate process was not followed in the approval, the PEC interpreted the code wrong, or the code itself is flawed and doesn’t serve the community interest in the case at hand.
There is a laundry list of issues cited by opponents of the project, some of which don’t even land in PEC’s court and weren’t considered in their approveal. It is unclear exactly which issue(s) will be reviewed by the council.
Helicopter…oh Helicopter - The hospital has a helipad so people requiring specialized or life-saving care can get to Denver. There are people that live/own property next to the hospital that believe the helicopter is a public safety issue and/or annoyance. Complaints about the helicopter pre-date the Evergreen development plan, however, since the Evergreen is going to be a tall building in close proximity to the helicopter it is now bearing the brunt of the heli-haterade.
The point of flight for life is to save lives in an emergency. No one looks forward to the day when they or their loved one gets one of these rides - but it’s good we have that option. Uncertain what the ratio of lives saved to EMS helicopter crashes is, but considering they are at every hospital that can afford to have them it’s likely that there is data to support that the risk is more than worth it.
Bringing too many people into the area
Not bringing enough people into the area
Too much shade in the shadow
Green roof runoff
Roof Slope (too flat)
Horizontal Aspect (too wide)
Vertical Aspect (too tall)
Massing, Lot Coverage, Set Backs (too big)
Parking (not enough)
Employee Housing (not enough) / jobs created (too many)
Removal of a Public Accessway - 15ft(?) of path that connects the path along the east side of Dobson to the back of the hospital parking lot.
Window glare
Yodel
Elevations - (unattractive roof line)
Booth Falls Trailhead Traffic: Report: In 2020 Vail Town Council directed staff to reduce the impacts of crowding/humans on Booth Lake Trail. The US Forest Service manages the public land by an act of congress implemented to ensure that private power and privilege do not exploit our natural resources for their own benefit to the detriment of the people/reasource. The Town of Vail has no authority to dictate use or management of public land, therefore the primary means of influencing crowding on the trail was to implement parking restrictions to reduce ease of access for the driving public. The objectives were reductions in (4) realms: parking issues, traffic & congestion, speeds, and trail use. This report provides data on the impacts of that effort from June-Oct 2021 to 2022:
33% reduction in Booth Falls trail users, 23% decrease in all East Vail trail users (per USFS)
23% increase in Booth Falls bus ridership, 27% increase East Vail bus ridership (per TOV)
There were a number of police/code enforcement interactions during this period. Without context or comparison figures there is no way to know what to think about them. It was a good year to be in the towing business?
There is no data provided on the increase/decreases for trail use or ridership in Vail overall; therefore we have no context to evaluate this area against visitation changes in general. We don’t know if these hikers just stayed home, or drove elsewhere to hike.
There are 33 bullet points of strategies implemented in support of this effort. It is a mystery how we might evaluate the impact or effectiveness of anyone of them independently.
There is no mention of what TOV considers an acceptable number of outsiders coming to the Booth Falls neighborhood. This is a theme.
Capacity exists. Crowding is real. Restrcitions in one area impact others. All eyes are on East Vail this year, but how that focus changes the landscape elsewhere is TBD. Wack-a-mole conservation makes me nervous.
Side note : the press release at the time quoted Leanne Veldhuis, Eagle-Holy Cross District Ranger as saying “Use at the Booth Lake Trail alone increased from 30,637 users in 2019 to 50,560 users in 2020.” Looking at the most recent report it appears Booth Falls vitiation is now below 2019 levels.
Deed Restriction Compliance: TOV invests in deed-restrictions to increase the supply of housing for working locals and residents. In order to protect that investment, owners of deed restricted properties are required to submit documentation to the TOV proving they live and work in Eagle County. If you don’t comply, you get taken to court. 96% of deed-restricted property owners submitted their documents on time last year. The deadline to submit is 2/1.
Evening Agenda: 12/20/22 Vail Town Council
Citizen Participation: a.k.a open mic night - PREACH
Buying 2 more deed restricted properties: For staff. addresses unknown.
Council Matters: Read it
Pride Flag location search is on!
Council priority tracker: living update on wtf the big picture is.
Interesting Article: Vail is one of the most expensive ski town in the US. The ranking order of listicles is less interesting than the facts they contain. Fun content can be made out of less-than-sexy housing stats.
Parking Update: No attachments on this - must watch - see below sections on where to watch or participate.
Council Strategic Planning Session Update
WEST MIDDLE CREEK REZONING! Affordable housing AND childcare facility hopefully getting zoning approval for the space between the post office and Middle Creek! Exciting!
Bag Fee: .25 cent disposable bag fee for everybody. 15 cents go to businesses and 10 cents go to the town. Read about it.
Budget Stuff: Where we spend money is a fascinating subject - read on if you are so inclined.
How to Participate & Comment at Vail Town Council Meetings:
The first 10 minutes of every Evening Vail Town Council starting at 6pm is Citizen Participation (a.k.a Open mic night). You get 3 minutes to preach to a captive audience of your leaders – in person or over Zoom. This is the most powerful and underutilized channel of government engagement in Vail. USE IT!
Public comment pertaining to extra spicy issues that appear agenda may be held later on in the evening prior to a vote by the Council Members. If you have comments regarding an item on the agenda and you are not sure if public comment will be called at that time - just ask them during citizen participation at the beginning of the meeting.
Register in advance to participate by Zoom. Quick links to registration pages:
register for 12/20/22 afternoon session
register the 12/20/22 evening session
Show up to the Vail Town Council Chambers before the 6:00pm start to comment in person.
Email your input for the public record to publicinput.vailtowncouncil@vailgov.com and CC: TownCouncil@vailgov.com before 12:00pm on Tuesday. Your emails will be part of the public record, but will not be read aloud at the meeting.
Where to Watch Vail Town Council Meetings:
Catch the livestream on Town of Vail’s Facebook Page
Follow the Twitter feed @VailTownCouncil
Show up to the Vail Town Council Chambers
Watch the recording on HighFive (it takes a day or two for the recordings to be posted. Facebook is better.)
NOTE: Comments on social aren’t really read or responded to in real time. If you have something to say see the above section on How to Comment.
Reference Links
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