Montrose, CO — City Councilors met for their regular meeting Tuesday evening, April 4, to consider a number of ordinances and contracts for various city projects.
Councilors Barbara Bynum, Mayor Dave Frank, Doug Glaspell, and Ed Ulibarri met in the temporary City Council Chambers in the Montrose Public Safety Complex along with city staff. Councilor David Reed was absent.
The following is a summary of the primary topics discussed during the meeting.
Watch the meeting here.
AMERICORPS WEEK PROCLAMATION
Mayor Dave Frank read a proclamation recognizing April 3-9 as AmeriCorps Week in the City of Montrose.
Frank said service is a hallmark of the American character and has the unique ability to bring people of all backgrounds together for a common cause, and throughout history, citizens have stepped up to meet our most pressing challenges of the day by volunteering in their communities.
AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps Seniors programs provide opportunities for more than 200,000 Americans to serve their country through service at nonprofits, schools, public agencies, and community and faith-based groups across the country. In southwest Colorado, AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers of diverse ages and backgrounds help to meet local needs.
“By increasing programming capacity to better serve community needs, addressing housing disparities, and restoring and protecting the environment, AmeriCorps Week is an opportunity to recognize the dedication and commitment of the more than 1.2 million Americans who have chosen to serve their country through AmeriCorps, and to encourage more Americans to follow their footsteps in service,” Frank said.
CALL FOR PUBLIC COMMENT
No members of the public offered any comments.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
City Councilors voted unanimously to approve the minutes of the March 21 regular City Council meeting.
The city’s archive of past meeting minutes can be found on the new Public Meetings Portal and at CityofMontrose.org/ArchiveCenter.
ORDINANCE 2620 — FIRST READING
City Councilors voted 3-1 to approve Ordinance 2620, on first reading, authorizing a plan to release historic City Hall as collateral and replace it with the city’s Animal Shelter and the Brown Center. Councilor Ed Ulibarri voted not to pass the ordinance.
In the late 1990s the city borrowed $10 million for improvements throughout the city including the construction of the Montrose Pavilion. The city used the historic City Hall as collateral in that loan. The city is selling City Hall to be transformed into a hotel and educational facility for Colorado Mesa University. The city is proposing to replace City Hall with the city’s Animal Shelter and the Brown Center, located on the city’s northern side, as collateral in this loan. The combined value of the Brown Center and Animal Shelter equals the value of the historic City Hall.
An ordinance is needed to complete the substitution of other city property for the City Hall building under this lease-purchase financing.
ORDINANCE 2618 — SECOND READING
City Councilors voted unanimously to approve Ordinance 2618, on second reading, amending the zoning designation of 122 acres, adjacent to the south side of the Cobble Creek Golf Course and bordering 6400 Road, from “R-3” Medium Density District with conditions to “R-3” Medium Density District without conditions.
City Planning Manager Jace Hochwalt said the applicant, Weststar Development, LLC specifically desires to rezone the 122-acre parcel to allow a subdivision to be built-out to the dimensional standards of a normal R-3 zoned property. Because the existing zoning ordinance (Ordinance 1603) contains other conditions beyond just the density restrictions, city staff has determined that the best way to move forward with this rezoning request would be via a new zoning ordinance. The recommended ordinance would not contain conditions for the 122-acre property, aside from a condition that the owner would be required to sign an Agreement and Declaration of Covenants with the city to retain the infrastructure, right-of-way dedication, and open space conditions imposed in Ordinance 1603.
The Agreement and Declaration of Covenants would be recorded, which would attach the conditions with the land and associated title reports and make clear to the current and future owners of the property what the infrastructure and open space requirements are for any future development. As things stand now, Ordinance 1603 is held in city records but is not recorded and may not show up on a title report. This can create confusion for city staff and any owners of the property who were not involved in the annexation and zoning of the property, which took place in 1996.
The council held a brief public hearing before voting to approve the ordinance.
ORDINANCE 2619 — SECOND READING
City Councilors voted unanimously to approve Ordinance 2619, on second reading, amending the zoning designation of lot 12 of the Miami Business Park Subdivision filing number one and lots 5 through 11 of the Miami Business Park Subdivision filing number two.
City Planning Manager Jace Hochwalt said the applicant would like to rezone the 5.56 acres from “OR” Office-Residential to “R-4” High Density District with plans to create a multi-building, multi-family development. The site area comprises 8 parcels and a trail and detention tract located along the 600 block of E Star Court, adjacent to the south side of the Star Drive-In theatre.
DRY CEDAR CREEK FINAL PLANNED DEVELOPMENT
City Councilors voted unanimously to approve the final plat for the Dry Cedar Creek Planned Development.
City Planning Manager Jace Hochwalt said The Residences at Dry Cedar Creek is a proposed 60-unit multi-family development in southern Montrose. The site does not have an address but is situated on the south side of Ogden Road to the east of the Ogden Road and Woodgate roundabout and directly adjacent to the east of the Montrose Recreation Center. The entire parcel is approximately 7.34 acres in size, although the proposed Planned Development area is north of Dry Cedar Creek and encompasses 4.41 acres. The property is zoned “R-3A” Medium High Density District. The development proposal includes three buildings.
Building 1 is a three-story multi-unit residential building proposed to contain 36 units. Building 2 is a three-story multi-unit residential building proposed to contain 24 units. The third building is a clubhouse that will include amenities for the residents. The site is proposed to contain approximately 1.82 acres of open space, which accounts for 41.3% of the Planned Development area.
ANDERSON ROAD PAVING CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT
City Councilors voted unanimously to approve a construction contract in the amount of $679,873 for the Anderson Road Paving Project. This includes the award of a construction contract to Skip Huston Construction in the amount of $639,873 and a survey/engineering support contract to Del-Mont Consultants in the amount of $40,000.
City Engineer Scott Murphy said Anderson Road was originally built sometime in the mid-80s as a gravel-road commercial park directly off of Townsend Avenue. Since its initial construction, the roadway has remained more-or-less in its original configuration with gravel through lanes and no accommodations for pedestrians.
This project would pave Anderson Road from Townsend Avenue to Commercial Way and add sidewalks down both sides of the roadway in order to reduce dust and improve aesthetics, pedestrian safety, and connectivity.
2023 PARKS MOWER PURCHASE RECOMMENDATION
City Councilors voted unanimously to approve a purchase recommendation for three Toro mowers from Roaring Fork Rentals in Glenwood Springs, CO for a total of $51,423.
Public Works Manager Jim Scheid said the city’s Fleet Division has budgeted to replace three riding mowers in 2023. These mowers will be used to assist in the maintenance of the parks that the Parks Division maintains, which includes turf in Cedar Creek Cemetery, the Sunset Mesa ball fields, and about 25% of the turf area within the remaining parks system. This amounts to about 95 acres of turf maintained by city crews and equipment.
All three mowers would be purchased through Roaring Fork Rentals, which is the regional vendor for Toro mowers, the brand used by the Parks Division and the Black Canyon Golf Course. The city requested pricing for mowers that match what currently exists in the city’s fleet. Due to this standardization, city staff recommended a sole-source purchase. The pricing provided by Roaring Fork Rentals uses Toro’s “Tax-Exempt Bid Support Program,” which allows the city to take advantage of government pricing offered through cooperative agreements.
The Fleet Division included $49,200 in the 2023 Budget for the replacement of
all three mowers. The budgeted amounts were based on quotes received in June of 2022 and included the anticipated inflationary increases that were known at that time. The Fleet Fund had collected $56,391 over the last 8 years for these replacements. The proposed purchase amount exceeds the budget by $2,223 but is under the amount collected by the Fleet Fund.
STAFF REPORTS
Planning Manager Jace Hochwalt said the city is hosting a public open house on Monday, April 17, at 6 p.m. to meet with residents about new code revisions the city is contemplating.
Public Works Manager Jim Scheid said the renovations to the City Council Chambers in the Elks Civic Building (107 S Cascade Ave) are nearing completion and public meetings at the facility will resume starting with the council work session on April 17.
Scheid said city street crews are out each day fixing potholes around the city. Residents can download the A Better Montrose (ABM) app to their smartphones to report potholes or by visiting the ABM page on the city’s website.
Deputy City Manager Ann Morgenthaler said the city’s golf course is open depending on the weather and The Rusty Putter restaurant is open and featuring daily specials.
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All City Council meetings are recorded and made available online via the city’s website and cable channels 191 for Charter subscribers and 970 for Elevate subscribers. Replays of council meetings are also broadcast at 6 p.m. on the same channels on days that the council is not in session.
In addition, each regular meeting is archived on the City of Montrose’s YouTube channel.
Residents can watch all regular City Council meetings and work sessions on-demand through the city’s Public Meetings Portal.
For more city news visit CityOfMontrose.org.