HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES Town Board Study Session 2023-11-28RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Town of Estes Park, Larimer County, Colorado November 28, 2023
Minutes of a Study Session meeting of the TOWN BOARD of the Town of
Estes Park, Larimer County, Colorado. Meeting held at Town Hall in the
Board Room in said Town of Estes Park on the 28th day of November,
2023.
Board:
Attending:
Also Attending:
Mayor Koenig, Trustees Cenac, Hazelton, Lancaster,
MacAlpine, Martchink, and Younglund
Mayor Koenig, Trustees Lancaster, MacAlpine, and
Martchink
Town Administrator Machalek, Deputy Town Administrator
Damweber, Town Attorney Kramer, and Town Clerk
Williamson
Absent: Mayor Pro Tem Cenac, Trustees Hazelton and Younglund
Mayor Koenig called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m.
GROWING WATER SMART OVERVIEW.
Deputy Town Administrator Damweber stated the Growing Water Smart program
provides Colorado communities a range of communication, public engagement,
planning, and policy implementation tools to understand their watershed health and
work towards achieving community resiliency goals. He stated a number of employees
attended a workshop to learn the more about the program and begin to develop
preliminary goals for the Town. Manager Wesley stated the Water division would
develop an updated water master plan, address water loss through water looping
projects, replacement of old pipes to decrease catastrophic breaks and leaks, and
utilize software to understand where water goes. Engineer Waters reviewed Public
Works efforts to address stormwater needs to ensure the health and resiliency of the
watershed. The Town has developed a stormwater master plan and begun to develop a
funding plan. The next step would be to develop a plan to address drainage issues
within the community. Community Development would rewrite the development code
with a focus on new requirements for applicants to design standards that incorporate
water efficient construction, review landscaping and associated maintenance
requirements, and update the plant list with a focus on drought -resistant, native, and
"firewise" or wildfire -resistant species. Trustee Martchink stated graywater recycling
and appliances have become more popular, and he would like a discussion of the item
during the development code rewrite for new development or retrofitting a home.
WATER DIVISION 101 AND WATER MASTER PLAN.
Director Bergsten stated the goal of the presentation was to provide the Board with an
overview of the Water division to outline current operations and issues of the division in
advance of the upcoming update to the water master plan. The division includes
administration, water quality lab, water plant operation, distribution, and capital projects
that provide water to customers inside and outside of town limits, with 5,600 service
connections, 120+ miles of water mains, 792 fire hydrants, 9 storage tanks, with 3.395
million gallons of treated water serving 7 pressure zones, and 12,000 water quality tests
per year. Manager Callahan reviewed water quality and laboratory services that sample
and test raw and treated water to support the water treatment, distribution, and
sampling for other local water systems. The Town's raw water source comes from snow
melt that has a low alkalinity, high color during spring runoff impacts filter operations,
very cold water slows formation of flocs and impacts disinfection, high total organic
carbon (TOCs) forms disinfection by-products, taste and odor from organics and algae,
and the use of chemicals to manage the TCOs that causes wear on the membrane
system. Manager Wesley reviewed the water treatment plants including Mary's Lake
RECORD OpPROCEEDINGS
Town Board Study Session — November 28, 2023 — Page 2
which operates spring through summer and Glacier Creek plant which operates summer
through early spring. She outlined the challenges of each plant: 1) Mary's Lake does not
have redundancy at full oapaoity, dependent on the Adam's Tunnel for raw water, and
the quality of the raw water; and 2) Glacier Creek plant has met the useful life of the
structure and the oquipment. limited utilities and poor oommunicationa, challenging
aomaoo, and seasonal water quality. Supervisor Lang reviewed water distribution and
storage that serves residential, oummoroia|, oonutmotion, fire proteotion, bulk vvater,
storage for peak demand and fire flovv. serves 5 private systems, with 5.000 utility
locates performed annually, and the need to move water to reduce water age and
improving water quality. The distribution system contains older galvanized or cast-iron
smaller diameter pipes which are not buried deep enough to prevent freezing, and the
system contains higher than typical pressures. Water distribution continues to address
dead ends, low winter demand resulting in increased water age, and federal and state
regulations to inventory service lines to identify lead lines within the system. The2U24
Master Plan would review the population and demand pnojaotions, eesooeo key water
asoots, optimize the water system perfomnanma, define existing system capital
impmvemento, define capital improvement plan (C|P) to meet level -of -service for future
oonditions, identify funding opportunities to support the C|P, and support the greater
economy through augmentation, water testing and development review.
2U22PAID PARKING PROGRAM YEAR-END REPORT.
Supervisor Klein presented an overview of the current parking program during 2023
which consisted of 150 days from May 26 — October 22 mirroring the RMNP timed entry
season. The 2023 operational improvements primarily focused on increased
communication to assist residents and guests due to heavy construction in the
downtown corridor and mad doaunaa. Other changes for 2O23 included o transition to
pay stations to push/pull credit card readers in high -traffic areas to nsduou the
processing time; increased the non -enforcement parking field team presence; issuance
of warnings in lieu of citations on October weekdays when parking was less full,- and
updated pedestrian -level payment aignageto direct customers to connect to |ooa|wi4i
for an efficient mobile payment experience. Overall average occupancy, including the
parking structure and events complex parking lot, was up296 compared to2022 and flat
compared to 2021. The average occupancy for paid parking was 70%, free parking
82%. and 23% for the perking structure in 2023. The local parking permit increased
from0U minutes to 120 minutes with no significant increase in utilization. Community
and customer input throughout the parking aoeaon included parking revenue task force,
presentations to partner agencies, translation of parking information into Spaniah. Pad+
n'VVa|k ohaUenge, outreach to lodging partnem, a new Library partnemhip, and an
annual permit survey. The program continues to develop with customer service
interactions trending positive/neutral,- the available parking continues to be adequate
during the weekdays and weekends are consistently full; the program broke down in
early fall on specific Bond Park events in late August, September, and Uctober� and
ridership on the shuttle system downtown dramatically increased. With the level of
construction disruption to continuo in the downtown corridor in 2024, staff recommends
nosignificant change orexpansion tothe 2024paid parking program.
TRUSTEE & ADMINISTRATOR COMMENTS &ClUEST|ONS
None.
FUTURE STUDY SESSION AGENDA ITEMS.
Seasonal RV housing on commercial sites pilot program was added to the approved
unscheduled list. Trustee K8aoA|pine stated the Estes Park Planning Commission
requested ajoint study session todiscuss the development code updates.
There being no further business, Mayor Koenig adjourned the meeting at 6:31 p.m.
�
ie Williamson, Town Clerk