Thread by @shayshinecastle

There's some interesting stuff in the consent agenda, including council ratifying all Brautigam's emergency orders during COVID. Some were new to me, like suspending the city fee to register a domestic partnership.

That's normally $25. It officially registers your relationship with the city. It's what you have to do if you want to live with someone you're not married with + roommates and not count against the occupancy limit. Many quirky rules around it (which I'll share later.)

Oh, also in consent agenda: A (non-binding) resolution to electrify the entire transportation sector by 2050 in Boulder.

Young addressing what she saw as some equity issues in there. Electrifying buses, she says, would take $$ away from other things (like subsidizing bus passes, etc.)

We're onto call-ups, which includes the NoBo library. There are others first, but here's that presentation. Gonna be a cool-looking building.

www-static.bouldercolorado.gov/docs/Item_4B_4…

NoBo library address: 4540 Broadway (2.84 acres)
Land annexed in 1990 as part of larger (324 acres) NoBo annexation. It was donated to the city in 1999 by Safeway (who wanted to build nearby but ended up... not.

It was always planned to be a library, village green, other public uses

The library itself will be 13,010 square feet
With 20 spaces of parking (a 6.3% reduction)

What's being considered now is site review and use review. I used to know what those meant but I've forgotten.

7-0 Planning Board vote to OK

I copied these renderings from the packet. They're in the presentation but in case you're lazy:

Clarification that there are 30 proposed parking spots; they're just proposing 20 in a lot and 10 along an access road.

Planner Sloane Walbert addressing concerns over the size by saying the zoning/whatever would allow a 21,000 sq ft building.

I'm not sure it's really an explanation of why it's that size to say, 'Well it could be bigger!'

But maybe library folks will weigh in later. Lots o' ppl in the area (one of the densest and with most affordable housing in the city) so maybe it's a matter of service. Plus we got that planning area to the North, so likely many more patrons in the future = bigger building.

It will have a maker space and some other stuff. I actually spoke with some Boulder students a few months ago. They proposed a bunch of stuff for the library, including a pollinator garden. They were AMAZING!

I wish I could find my notes to share more, but alas, I cannot. But they were very, very impressive. Even handled delicate questions about neighborhood opposition and homelessness with much more grace than many adults.

Awww, Friend is referencing the same group of kids (produced/coordinated by Growing Up Boulder). Which of their ideas were incorporated? she asks.

Antonia Gaona: We've been focusing on the exterior, but when we move on interior design, that's where their feedback will be incorporated. They had lots of good idea on the maker space, programming, etc.

Their feedback is a priority for us, Gain says.

Crap, auto correct. Gaona.

Some elements were cut due to a constrained budget: An outdoor learning garden and outdoor playground (except for the "iconic slide that attaches to the building."

WHOA. I demand a pre-opening media walkthrough and slide trial.

Friend: I would almost prefer to see those fast-tracked, bc during COVID that's the stuff we could use.
Gaona: Planned opening is mid-2022. We hope COVID will be a different situation by then.

The focus was on preserving the as much of the structure itself as we could, and then spaces were prioritized for under-represented groups and children.

Friend asking about parking. What utilization do we expect? Hard to compare to downtown, since ... well, it's downtown, by the creek, etc. But it's a small number of parking.

Walbert: The analysis did include looking at other libraries and what parking they needed.
Gaona: We studied parking use at the main and branch libraries (+ programming, etc) to predict a max use of 26 spaces at any one time (there are 30)

We're expecting more multi-modal, she says, bc it's right in the middle of a bunch of homes, on a bus line, on the bike/multi-use path.... "It will be a very convenient walk" for many nearby residents.

Staff also reminding me of a great City of Boulder perk: All employees get eco-passes while they work here!

And, I just learned, board and commission members get them, too, for the length of their term. A reason to run!

Wallach asking some qs. 25,000 sq ft site, but some is Open Space (Other) and some is flood plain. How much of that site is buildable?

Seems like he's going somewhere...

Ah, there it is. "There are no" renderings of what this library will look like from the homes to the north. "Was there no flexibility in pushing it further away" from those homes?

I think I've only been capturing half of Gaona's last name, but I can't see the full thing.

She's addressing the concerns of the neighbor. "We've been as responsive as we can without relocating (it) scrapping the project" or making it much smaller....

...which would not serve the community.

Wallach breaks in; she keeps going. The neighbors we're hearing from is 23-26 people.

They're worried about unhoused people gathering around the library and the crime they believe will follow. (Also traffic, parking, yada yada)

We've done studies that show traffic, even with the library, will not be more than other comparable neighborhoods.

(This is still all Gaona, btw)

RE: Unhoused folks: The library is welcome to all, regardless of their housing status, she says, but we do plan to control for behavior. (Full-time security)

"Other than that, everybody is welcome at any of our buildings."

Wallach saying the security plan is good. He has one last q: What happens if we run out of construction $$? Because the city is short on $$ these days.

Goana: Every construction $$ has been allocated already ($10.5M) and we've adjusted our plans so that the estimated cost is well below that. And a 3% cost escalation and 10% contingency is built in (Library director David Farnan breaking in with that last bit)

Swetlik: When did this change from a 5,000-sq ft library to a 13,010 sq ft library?
Walbert: That 5,000 sq ft was the previous limit of what *could* be built there. That changed.
Farnan: There were no previous plans. We never got to a planning process.

Goana: There was a conceptual drawing that showed a 5,000 sq ft building. It was just to show that a library would go there; it was never part of the library's plans.

That's what neighbors are referencing.

We're well over 15 min on this. But still making good time, from what I could tell.

Council now gonna vote to call this up or not.

Brockett referencing ex-member Lisa Morzel, a big NoBo library advocate. There have been plans for a library here for a long time, he says (at least since the 90s).

It was part of the NoBo sub community plan, adopted in the 90s. ('94?)

Weaver: Whenever a building is places, new construction, it's going to create some change for the neighborhood. So this opposition is reasonably expected.

But at the end of the day, when this facility is in, I think it will be a selling point for the neighbors.

Weaver says its a "phenomenal design."
I agree. (I know ya'll don't like me to have opinions but damn this is a cool looking building)

Yates: This is not North Boulder's library. It's the entire community's library. The funding for this came primarily from a tax that passed with 82%. The community has wanted this library for a long, long time.

Nobody wants to call it up. So that's that.

@threadreaderapp please unroll. Thanks!