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Posted on: June 8, 2023

Blog: CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING: Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Montrose, CO — City Councilors met for their regular meeting Tuesday evening,  June 6, to consider a number of ordinances and contract awards for various city projects. 

Mayor Barbara Bynum and councilors Dave Frank, Doug Glaspell, David Reed, and Ed Ulibarri met in the City Council Chambers at the Elks Civic Building along with city staff.

The following is a summary of the primary topics discussed during the meeting. 

 Watch the meeting here.

CONSENT AGENDA

City Councilors voted unanimously to approve the minutes of the May 16 regular City Council meeting.

City Councilors voted unanimously to approve the cancelation of the Tuesday, July 4, regular City Council meeting due to the national holiday. 

The city’s archive of past meeting minutes can be found on the new Public Meetings Portal and at CityofMontrose.org/ArchiveCenter.

MAIN STREET CLOSURE APPROVAL FOR HABITAT FOR HUMANITY EVENT

City Councilors voted unanimously to approve the closure of Main Street for an upcoming fundraising event. 

An application was received from Habitat for Humanity to close the 500 block of Main Street and Uncompahgre Avenue from North First Street to Centennial Plaza for the Rock the Block event on Saturday, June 24. Including event set up and clean up afterward, the streets will be closed from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m.

Event organizers are required to notify all businesses affected by the closures, and at least 75 percent of those businesses must approve of the closures before the Events Use Permit will be approved by city staff. Documentation of the notifications was received from the applicants and was included in the meeting packet along with the event application.

Black Canyon Boys and Girls Club has applied for a special events permit to sell and serve alcohol during the event. The premises were posted in compliance with state statutes.

SPECIAL EVENTS ALCOHOL PERMIT APPROVAL FOR HABITAT FOR HUMANITY EVENT

City Councilors voted unanimously to approve an alcohol permit for Habitat for Humanity’s upcoming Main Street closure. 

ORDINANCE 2628 — FIRST READING

City Councilors voted unanimously to approve the adoption of the 2018 International Building and Energy Codes for use in the city’s planning and building department. 

Deputy City Manager Ann Morgenthaler and Chief Building Officer Archie Byers noted that the City of Montrose adopted the 2003 International Building Codes, published by the International Code Council (ICC), in July 2005. These include the 2003 versions of the International Building Code (IBC), the International Mechanical Code (IMC), the International Residential Code (IRC), the International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC), the International Plumbing Code (IPC), the International Existing Building Code (IEBC), the International Property Maintenance Code (IPMC), and the International Fire Code (IFC). In 2008, the city adopted the 2003 version of the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC).

Local governments in the region have had the shared goal of adopting the same version of building codes in order to provide consistent standards for the professional building community that apply in multiple jurisdictions. The majority of regional local governments have adopted the 2018 building codes and do not have plans to adopt more recently published codes.

In addition to the goal of regional consistency, State of Colorado legislation (HB22‐1362) requires that if a local government adopts new building codes prior to July 1, 2023, it must also adopt either the 2015, 2018, or 2021 IECC. If a municipality adopts a new building code after July 1, 2023, the local government must adopt an energy code that is equivalent to the 2021 version of the IECC. 

Notable Updates

Adoption of the 2018 suite of building and energy codes will include some noticeable changes including:

IRC automatic sprinkler requirement

Increased fire separation distance (from 3 to 5 feet) for the fire-resistant construction requirement

Requirement to drywall basement/crawlspace lids when fueled-fired appliances are located in the basement or crawlspace

Increased insulation values or energy heel trusses

Mechanical ventilation requirements

Lighting efficacy increases

Duct and blower door testing for air leakage

Currently, pursuant to the 2003 building codes, the City of Montrose does not require interior residential sprinklers in single‐family, duplex, or townhouse structures. The 2018 building codes require that single‐family, duplex, and townhouse structures are built to include interior residential sprinklers. However, a local government may make amendments when adopting the codes in order to modify such requirements. Staff recommends, and the proposed adoption ordinance includes, language specifying that these requirements for interior residential sprinklers are eliminated. 

Byers said this change would be consistent with other regional local governments and would accomplish the staff’s goal of providing an incremental, and not drastic, update to the building codes.

WASTEWATER PRETREATMENT EXPENSE AUTHORIZATION

City Councilors voted unanimously to approve $120,000 in expenditures to assist with the construction of wastewater pretreatment infrastructure at the new Shelter Distilling headquarters.

City Manager Bill Bell said Shelter Distilling has broken ground on their new 15,000-square-foot distillery, brewery, and restaurant within the Colorado Outdoors campus. During the design process for this new facility, the owners of Shelter hired a brewery wastewater consultant and worked closely with the city’s engineering and utilities staff to design an industrial wastewater pretreatment system for its production and restaurant elements. Without pre-treatment on site, wastewater effluent from the Shelter facility would contribute large amounts of organic loading to the city’s wastewater treatment plant that could consume more than 10% of the city’s total treatment capacity. Although the Shelter facility would pay for all organic loading contributed to the treatment plant, a 10% jump in usage would be considered excessive and would accelerate the need for the plant’s eventual expansion. As a best practice, it is desirable for the city to protect treatment plant capacity to the extent practicable given the large capital cost of adding to it.

FIORI DI LENA PRELIMINARY PLAT

City Councilors voted unanimously to approve the preliminary plat for the Fiori Di Lena development. 

City Planner William Reis said the Fiori di Lena subdivision is a proposed residential development located on both sides of the proposed extension of 6700 Rd, south of the intersection of Miami Rd and 6700 Rd. The property is approximately 6.6 acres in size and is zoned “R-1A” large estate district. This subdivision will include 12 residential lots. 

The Planning Commission voted to approve the Fiori di Lena Subdivision preliminary plat during the May 10 meeting. A final plat will also be required within five years of approval of this preliminary plat.

Applicant: Ben and Paul DeJulio and City of Montrose

ORDINANCE 2627 — SECOND READING

City Councilors voted unanimously to approve the Air Park Way Rezone located at 2370 Air Park Way.

City Planner William Reis said the applicant is proposing to rezone a portion of the 0.14-acre property at 2370 Air Park Way from I-2 (General Industrial) to B-3 (General Commercial). The property owner recently completed a boundary line adjustment with the neighboring property to the west and, to avoid having any parcels split-zoned, a rezone was proposed so that each lot has a clearly distinguished zoning boundary. The Planning Commission recommended approval of the rezoning request at their April 26 meeting. 

Applicant: S&J Development, LLC.

ORDINANCE 2629 — FIRST READING

City Councilors voted unanimously to approve Ordinance 2629 on first reading, disconnecting a portion of parcel number 376716320003 from the city limits. 

City Planner William Reis said the city recently received a request from Donnie and Barbara Blowers to de-annex a small portion of their property located at 2335 6450 Road. The request results from a recent boundary line dispute due to a fence line location. This boundary dispute was resolved with a boundary line agreement recorded in February of 2023.

RESOLUTION 2023-09

City Councilors voted unanimously to set July 18 as the hearing date for the Dry Cedar Creek II Addition annexation. 

City Planner William Reis said the Dry Cedar Creek II Addition is approximately 5.06 acres in size. The parcel is located along Ogden Road, southeast of its intersection with Kellie Drive. It is within the city’s urban growth boundary, the city’s sewer service area, and the city’s water service area. 

2023 LANDFILL AGREEMENT RECOMMENDATION

City Councilors voted unanimously to approve a contract recommendation for continued use of the Waste Management landfill for city trash service. 

Public Works Director Jim Scheid said the city’s Trash and Recycle Division has collected and hauled the city’s solid municipal waste to the landfill, located northeast of the city, for many years. The landfill is operated by Waste Management and, in the past, was the only option available to the city for landfill services. The city’s existing agreement with Waste Management is due to expire in June 2023, prompting the city to issue a Request For Proposals (RFP) for landfill services. Two qualified bids, one from Waste Management for $60.68 per tip, and the other from Bruin Waste for $66.50 per tip, were received. 

Scheid said the city hauls about 10,000 tons of waste per year, on average, to the landfill. 

City staff recommended awarding the contract to Waste Management as the company has performed well in the past and has the lowest cost per ton for tipping fees. Scheid noted that it is great to see competition in this market.

MONTROSE CITY HALL PHASE 3 DESIGN CONTRACT AWARD RECOMMENDATION

City Councilors voted unanimously to approve a contract with Blythe Group in the amount of $145,030 for the design of the façade replacement on the new City Hall located at 400 East Main Street.

Public Works Director Jim Scheid said the city has worked with Blythe Group on two phases of interior remodeling of the new City Hall. These two phases are now complete, and the facility is currently being utilized by city staff. To continue the renovation project, the city requested a proposal from Blythe to complete the design of the façade replacement for the facility, also known as phase three. 

This design work is to be completed mostly in 2023, allowing for a potential construction start in the spring of 2024. Blythe Group has already completed some concept design work on the façade portion of the project as part of their scope in phase two. 

This preliminary concept work allowed cost estimating to be performed and enabled discussions between city staff and City Council to determine the scope and budget that the phase three design should be targeting. After the design team begins work, city staff will procure a contract manager and general contractor to assist with pre-construction services to ensure that the design stays within the targeted project budget. 

As part of Blythe’s design scope, they will participate in stakeholder and community meetings and lead a design team that includes various engineers and consultants to ultimately provide construction documents (CDs) for the façade replacement.

2023 MOVEMO SIDEWALK IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT AUTHORIZATION

City Councilors voted unanimously to approve funds for sidewalk improvements as part of the 2023 MoveMo initiative in the amount of $150,000.

Public Works Director Jim Scheid said the City of Montrose requested formal bids for on-call concrete construction services. The successful bidders, Avila Concrete, Bull Basin, OEC Construction, and Agave Construction, are responsible for providing concrete services on an as-needed basis at various locations throughout the city. 

Each portion of sidewalk improvements is broken down into small projects that staff can insert into the bid tabulation to determine which contractor will be the lowest cost. Avila Concrete Construction was the lowest bidder across many of the line items on the bid tabulation. If Avila is unable to accommodate a particular project, the project will be offered to the next lowest bidder until a contractor agrees to take the job. All the qualified bidders were awarded an on-call contract to perform concrete work for the city.

The 2023 MoveMo Sidewalk Improvements Project is comprised of multiple smaller concrete projects across Maintenance Zone B (see graphic). 

Map showing street maintenance areas for 2023

The Streets Division performed a detailed survey of sidewalk conditions in this zone in 2022 to determine which areas could be milled down (ground) and which areas needed to be replaced. The grinding of sidewalks is a separate scope of work and is scheduled to be completed in June of 2023. Areas needing replacement will be separated into smaller projects and Public Works will utilize the most economical bidder from the on-call concrete contract to perform the work.

STAFF REPORTS

Deputy City Manager Ann Morgenthaler said City Planner William Reis recently earned his certified planner accreditation, making Reis the city’s second certified planner on staff. 

•••

 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.

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