July 5 2022 - Town Council Agenda Breakdown
A VailSticky guide to Vail Town Council Meetings: for folks that don’t have time for that.
Purple: Property Owners appealing DRB’s approval of the East Vail Workforce Housing design spec. White: East Vail Workforce Housing location. Map Data Sources: OnX
What’s on the Agenda for 7/5/22
Below is a quick rundown of what’s on the evening agenda. This is not a complete list, just some snippets of what we think are sticky issues. You can find links to the full official agendas at the bottom of this page, including info on how to participate, and where to watch.
6pm Citizen Participation (a.k.a. Open Mic Night):
The C U Next Tuesday Social Club will be asking the Town Council to
Lean into short 1-2 question surveys that are designed for mobile to capture the <50 year old, <+200k earner demographic that is underrepresented.
Take meaningful action on STR regulations and the costs they bring to our community.
Rebrand your language for ‘Vail Resorts’ -> You have a problem with Broomfield Resort Management, you call ‘em out. Leave our friends, family, neighbors, and all the hardworking Vail Mountain Crew out of your spat. We are all Vail.
What will you ask them?
Appeal to DRB’s approval of East Vail Workforce Housing:
In May Vail’s Design Review Board (DRB) voted (4-1) to approve design changes to the East Vail Workforce Housing Development. The property is still in the process of being seized; but if it were to be built the current design spec at least meets the Town’s standards according to DRB. A handful of folks (Ford, Grisafi, Kiehl, Rutledge) are asking the Town Council to overturn DRB’s latest approval for a variety of reasons, including light pollution, wood siding, traffic noise/impacts (not from I-70, but from the workforce housing residents), heat absorption from the buildings/parking areas changing the climate, and landscaping in/around the frontage road and I-70.
DRB has nothing to do with bighorn sheep. Although concern for the sheep are raised by one appellant (Grisafi), it is unlikely the sheep fall under the purview of DRB; we have a separate Planning and Environmental Commission (PEC) that tackles that.
Background:
DRB is the group of citizens in charge of keeping/making Vail beautiful by making sure buildings and landscaping adheres to their interpretation of the Town Code. If a group of a citizens thinks that DRB has gotten it wrong, they can appeal to the Town Council to step in and review the decision. Town council will then overturn DRB’s decision, uphold it, or uphold it with some extra conditions.
DRB does a whole bunch of important stuff that usually doesn’t attract any attention. As is typically the case for any sort of commercial development or workforce housing project; there is a group of people that object to it based on it being aesthetically unpleasing or inconvenient. Town code is often boring subject matter to regular folks, but it has always been an effective way to keep ‘undesirables’ out of certain backyards. The code favors primary/secondary residential homes; and it puts DRB in a pickle when trying to apply it to meet the needs of multi-level mid to high density housing and/or commercial buildings.
Note: These objections are raised against the construction of East Vail Affordable Housing only. I cannot find any similar objections to the construction of new luxury housing in the same area. I encourage anyone with the time to comb through the public record to send proof of the existence/non-existence of previous objections to DRB’s decisions on the non-affordable housing construction in this area of Booth Falls to towncouncil@vailgov.com and cc info@vailsticky.com.
What can you do:
Tell the Town Council….
Back up your DRB when they approve residential housing
Update the Building and Design code to make it easier for residential housing projects to be approved
Send a message to developers and investors: When you get an approval from our boards and commissions, you can trust that we will honor it.
Send a message to current and future residents, business owners, and workforce talent: Vail is a place you want to live, and is a place that wants you to live here.
Housing Tax Ballot Language:
Vailiens approved a .5% sales tax to fund housing last year (2A). CO’s weird tax rules (TABOR) says that you can’t keep more than you planned for in the first year. Vail’s been crankin’ and that 2A hosing fund is expected to rake in .5 to 1.5 million more than anticipated. The tax didn’t change – people are just buying lots of stuff. (Note: Groceries are not taxed). Town Council should allow Vail voters to decide that TOV can keep the change in November. If we don’t allow TOV to keep the change all the small businesses are going to have a real pain in the ass updating their POS system to stop and then re-start collecting sales tax for different periods of time.
You can read the full agenda for the evening meeting here.
You can read the full agenda for the afternoon meeting here
How to Participate & Comment:
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 speak your truth 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. Public comment pertaining to extra spicy issues on the agenda may be held later on in the evening prior to a vote by the Council Members - these issues are usually in the “public hearing” section of the agenda.
Register in advance to participate by Zoom: Register for 7/5/22 Vail Town Council Meeting
Show up to the Vail Town Council Chambers before the 6:00pm start to comment in person.
Email your thoughts to 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
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.
