By Jack Elder
Manitou Springs City Council’s work session on Tuesday, April 27, had only one item for discussion — a joint meeting with the Planning Commission to review the subdivision and zoning code revision project.
There was widespread agreement on the need to simplify the code and to make it more user-friendly, as well as obtaining more public input to the revision process.
Most of Tuesday’s discussion was a presentation by project manager Jennifer Gardner from the consultant firm Logan Simpson. Gardner and city Planning Director Christine Lowenberg described how the advisory committee of citizens and stakeholders was recruited.
Gardner also described the methodology used in the 99-page report. The entire report is available in the meeting agenda, which is on the City Council web page: www.manitouspringsgov.com/201/City-Council.
Gardner gave a detailed two-hour presentation of the results of the many months of work that produced a list of 11 themes. They are based on 211 responses to the city’s online questionnaire and 38 additional interviews, and will provide the focus and priorities for the code revision.
The 11 themes identified in assessing the current code and how respondents prioritized them are to:
- Simplify administration and formatting;
- Update definitions;
- Clarify zone district standards;
- Develop commercial and residential design standards;
- Revise use-specific standards;
- Update parking requirements;
- Clarify urban renewal area standards;
- Incorporate sustainability;
- Update the standards for development in natural and geologic hazard areas;
- Update sign regulations; and
- Revise non-conformity regulations.
The report devoted several pages of discussion to each theme.
Planning Commission Chair Alan Delwiche and commission member Dave Armstrong said that the list’s first four themes came up “over and over again,” as Delwiche phrased it.
Tip Ragan of the Planning Commission felt that the most “doable” of the 11 items should be identified and executed; he specifically pointed out simplifying administration and formatting and updating definitions. Those are the two themes respondents and councilors identified the most by far.
Ragan suggested that future discussions narrow the themes down to two or three at a time, with Delwiche feeling that this would encourage greater public participation. Armstrong and Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Fortuin expressed the desire to “get as many people involved as possible,” as Fortuin put it.
Each commissioner and each councilor was given three minutes to comment on the report.
Councilors Judith Chandler and Julie Wolfe expressed displeasure with being given only four days to study the report and then only three minutes to comment on it. Chandler went over a lengthy list of comments. Both councilors expressed a desire to slow down the process, with Chandler saying, “It doesn’t need to be a speeding train.”
Wolfe said that she wanted a discussion format and dialog in future meetings on the zoning revision, “not just little speeches.”
Mayor John Graham was pleased to see that the report emphasized quality of life.
Councilors and commission members expressed widespread support to refrain from loosening the standards for granting zoning regulation variances.
Lowenberg invited councilors to send comments to her.
Graham thanked the Planning Commission members for their attendance and participation at Tuesday’s meeting, noting that future meetings will address the code revision. No dates were given.
Toward the end of the meeting, Chandler noted that Friday, April 30, is Arbor Day and a tree-planting event is planned for 9 a.m. Saturday. The tree-planting group and the climate action group will host the planting of two trees, Chandler said.
She said that the two trees will memorialize the “heritage” trees removed along Cañon Avenue several years ago and will be in the same area. Chandler also noted that the city will plant a 5-foot spruce tree in the Urban Renewal Area at 9 a.m. Friday.
City Administrator Denise Howell announced that the Cog Railway is now planning to re-open “toward the end of May,” not May 1 as originally planned.