City Council meets tonight at 6:30PM in City Council Chambers. They will hear an update on regional air quality, appoint an interim municipal judge, hold a public hearing on the Dinosaur Ridge Metropolitan District, adopt a resolution asking RTD to delay service cuts and decrease fares, and update our municipal code to reflect changes to the Colorado Revised Statues. See the meeting packet for the details of all of these issues.
The business meeting will be followed by a study session, in which Council will discuss recent citizen requests to set a temporary moratorium on new construction. Many Golden residents are concerned that our Municipal Code has not been sufficiently updated to reflect the Golden Comprehensive Plan or the Neighborhood Plans.
Since 2010, the community has been working to define the type of growth and development that we want. To this end, we published Golden Vision 2030, followed by the Golden Comprehensive Plan, followed by a series of more specific Neighborhood Plans. Each Neighborhood Plan concluded with a section describing the changes needed in our Municipal Code to put the Plans into force.
Some of the changes expressed in the Neighborhood Plans have made it into the (enforceable) Municipal Code, and many have not. The changes are generally summarized at the end of each plan, using phrases like “The City should enact zoning style regulatory tools….” You can review the plans at the links below. The proposed changes appear on the page number provided with the link.
South Golden Road Neighborhoods Plan, p. 12
North Clear Creek Neighborhood Plan, p. 19
East Downtown Neighborhood Plan, p. 30
Golden Heights/Golden Hills Neighborhood Plan, p. 12
North Neighborhoods Plan, p. 27
8th and 9th St. Neighborhood Plan, p. 16
Downtown Character Plan, p. 29
Central Neighborhoods Plan, p. 20
South Neighborhoods Plan, p. 33
Recent Planning Commission decisions–and the underlying Commission discussion–have highlighted the disconnects between the Municipal Code (which is legally enforceable) and the Neighborhood Plans. These “disconnects” are frustrating to both citizens and Planning Commission members, as they leave us with no ability to prevent oversized developments. Several neighborhood groups have asked City Council to put a moratorium on new construction until the Municipal Code can be updated to reflect the decisions made in the Comprehensive and Neighborhood Plans.
If you have an opinion regarding a moratorium, you can 1) express it during public comment at the beginning of tonight’s Council meeting (at 6:30); 2) send an email explaining your view to citycouncil@cityofgolden.net. In either case, this would be a good meeting to attend, to demonstrate that the subject is of interest to you.
Other Thursday Events:
10AM – Everything Dinosaur Talk: Hadrosaurs
6PM – Shelton Coyote Carnivale (bid online!)
6PM – SheJumps Golden Wax and Wine at Bent Gate
6PM – Dinosaur Talk: What is a Dinosaur?
7PM – Choir Concert at Golden High School
This is the final weekend to see Neil Simon’s Lost in Yonkers at Miners Alley.
