City Hall Highlights – week of February 24, 2020

Highlights from Monday’s City Council Work Session, February 24, 2020:

-Closed Executive Session: Possible closed executive session for private discussion by City Councilmembers and City Attorney.

–HomeCOS: Housing our future, a comprehensive affordable and attainable housing plan for the city of Colorado Springs, Colorado.

• Excellent presentation by Steve Posey, HUD Program Manager, Community Development Division. 
• #3 – Best Places to Live, U.S. News and World Report
• #1 – Large City for Veterans to Call Home, Military Times Reboot Camp
• #28 – America’s Top 50-Bike Friendly Cities, Bicycling.com
• #1 – Metro for Millennial Population Growth, Brookings
• If you reach the $18-20 hourly wage as a household, you can afford an average apartment in Colorado Springs without you being house burdened.  Councilmember Avila asked for a more realistic breakdown of wages needed to live in Colorado Springs by a family.  Mr. Posey is emailing a study that indicates a family needs $27 hourly wage.  Councilmember Murray said we need to look at more variables than just hourly wage, i.e. cost of living, rental prices going up, etc.
• The presentation provides a detailed breakdown of our employment and housing opportunities.

– Stopping Puppy Mills:  Folks discussed unsafe practices of puppy mills and the need change how Pet City in Colorado Springs conducts business.  The hope is to change the Pet City business model to a humane way of selling non-commercial breed pets.  Unfortunately, there are still breeders who are violating USDA regulations.  Please don’t support illegal breeders – please research where you get your new family member.  I’ve attached a checklist produced by the Humane Society you can take with you when you check out a new breeder.  The city council will not decide on a new ordinance and will hear more presentations in future meetings.  The council wants the folks involved in this discussion to get together and come to a consensus on how to move forward and propose changes to the city council.

-City Code Chapter 7 Amendment Update:  Update on the City Code for zoning and subdivision regulations.  Don Elliott, Clarion Associates is the consultant on updating Chapter 7.

• Purpose of this project is to establish a new, modern, and more user-friendly Unified Development Code (UDC) to update the current regulations, improve the City’s development and restructure and refine the current regulations.
• The city council wants this process done in approximately 13 months, with the current city council.

-State and Federal Tax Impacts to Homeowners Inside Metro Districts: Presentation to City Council by City Councilmember Don Knight. We believe Mr. Knight’s presentation data was flawed. Look for an article breaking down his financial impacts and data we uncovered.

Check out more City Council highlights from February 10, 2020.

The Maverick Observer, or “The Moe” as we affectionately call it, is an online free-thinking publication interested in the happenings in our town. We launched in February 2020 to hold our politicians and businesses accountable. We hope to educate, inform, entertain, and infuse you with a sense of community.