Manitou Springs City Council had a single item on its agenda for the work session of Tuesday, Nov. 30. That was to continue its budget discussion begun in response to Finance Director Rebecca Davis’ invitation to councilors to submit comments and questions.
Several questions from Councilor Julie Wolfe remained to be discussed.
City Administrator Denise Howell told Wolfe that the first draft of the 2022 budget already answers Wolfe’s questions regarding a study of staff morale conducted by an outside firm, paving the streets leading to the future fire department training facility, hiring an outside firm to devise a reservation system for parking at Hiawatha Gardens and the Barr Trail lot and others.
Wolfe’s other questions included constructing a sidewalk on Ruxton Avenue at the dangerous curve near its intersection with Pilot Knob and striping Washington Avenue. Wolfe was also concerned with the difficulty in looking up code violations.
Deputy City Administrator Roy Chaney told Wolfe that striping and delineating the Ruxton sidewalk will begin with the striping soon and that the sidewalk will be constructed in the spring or summer of 2022.
Chaney also said that Washington Avenue striping will take into account adding a new center lane. He said that staff is researching how to make the Planning Code’s provisions more easily accessible.
Davis pointed out that the budget can be amended at any time and that it is “not set in stone as a plan.”
Several councilors joined Wolfe in criticizing the difficulties encountered when trying to call city staff, especially after hours. Wolfe was told that bringing the dispatch function, for which the city now contracts with El Paso County, back into Manitou would cost as much as $1.5 million.
Councilor John Shada and others detailed the lengthy and often inappropriate options the county system offers callers.
Mayor John Graham said that the problem Shada and others described was “solvable” and that many cities had effective procedures in place. He suggested a pilot program with a working solution in place in the coming year. Howell said that staff would prepare cost figures.
Graham and Shada were both critical about Soda Springs Park’s condition. Graham called for prioritizing completion of the park’s renovation.
Both Soda Springs Park and Higginbotham Flats will be discussed in council’s strategic planning retreat in January, the date of which has not yet been announced.
Some councilors favor an outside facilitator for the retreat, but some do not. Retreat details will be finalized at a January work session.
Graham announced that city attorney Jeff Parker has prepared an emergency ordinance in response to Wolfe’s request for one, as well as for an emergency meeting, to protect the city from undesirable development between now and the completion of the zoning code revision, expected in August.
City Planner Michelle Anthony had prepared a set of new setback and height regulations for new development in the Urban Renewal Area after Wolfe’s initial call for a construction moratorium. Council accepted her suggestions in a previous meeting and they will be incorporated into an ordinance.
Graham asked councilors for their views and how to proceed. The unanimous consensus was to send the ordinance through the normal, non-emergency process, starting with its presentation to the Planning Commission. Wolfe asked that the Planning Commission devise more aggressive restrictions than those in Anthony’s proposal.
Howell outlined a timeline for the proposed ordinance with a first reading in January and a second reading probably in February.
A public hearing on the 2022 budget is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 7, before its final passage. Law requires the budget to be passed no later than Dec. 15.
The Dec. 14 City Council meeting is planned to be the last in 2021.