Apr 142014
 

BioThe council study session opened with Renee Ortiz, the Fitness Festival Event Manager. The Fitness Festival has raised over 1 million dollars, and the money has been used to fund the Cherry Creek School District’s wellness programs such as bullying prevention and suicide prevention. She asked if Greenwood Village would support the tradition of the 5k again for the 14th year. She also asked if Greenwood Village will provide the Fitness Festival with street closures and officers at the 5k like they have done in previous years. The council agreed to support the event once again by agreeing to close off the streets and provide officers on the day of the Fitness Festival.

April 7th was also Arbor Day. This holiday, was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska; and Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world. This day is special as trees reduce the erosion of our precious topsoil by wind and water, cut heating and cooling costs, moderate the temperature, clean the air, produce oxygen and provide habitat for wildlife. Trees in our city also increase property values, enhance the economic vitality of business areas, and beautify our community. This is why the planting of trees is so important and valued in the Greenwood Village Community. Due  to our efforts in planting trees in our community, the City of Greenwood Village has been awarded TREE CITY USA 2013. This is the 25th award that the City of Greenwood Village  has received.

Another issue talked about during the session was whether to approve a resolution and ordinance adopting Development Zone and Notification Area Maps to be used for fulfilling the requirements for mailed notification for pending development projects. This had been an ongoing discussion from the March 17, 2014 meeting. Staff recommended that the City Council adopt Development Zone and Notification Area Maps. In summary, staff recommended that there should be three tiers of notification: Adjacent notification for proposed actions that principally impact adjacent properties, the second tier of notification would be for projects that impact at a neighborhood level, and the third tier of notification would be used for development proposals having the potential to impact a subarea of the community at a multiple neighborhood level. These recommendations were agreed upon and approved by council.

 

 

  •  Posted by on April 14, 2014 at 12:19 am
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Mar 242014
 

BioThis council session started with the presentation of the Jasmine Project. The project was prepared by Bob Doyle, a Greenwood Village resident, and by Brandi Honeycutt, a Conservation Specialist at Denver Water. The objective of this ongoing project is to assess and apply the best management practices and technology for saving water and reducing yearly irrigation and water expenses. The Jasmine Project team has formed relations with Denver Water  to help implement this plan. Denver Water completed free water audits for 14 homeowners in located in the Greenwood Hills neighborhood. Thirteen out of fourteen of these homeowners said that the measures taken were easy and inexpensive to implement, and that they ultimately reduced their outdoor water use. This audit and project participation educated participants and made them more aware of water efficiency, while saving them money on their water bills.

The Jasmine Project fostered  ideas that, if implemented, could potentially lead to an overall reduction in water use in the City of Greenwood Village.  The first idea is to send each single-family residential property in the City of Greenwood Village a letter including a graph showing the target water consumption  amount based on the property’s  irrigated  area, and will show the actual amount of water being used. This will allow customers to see whether or not they are using more water than required, and can make adjustments to reduce water use if needed. Also, the  letter  will  compare  residents  to  their  neighbors  with  similar  landscape characteristics. Customers who are using more than the target amount can contact Denver Water to request a water audit to help manage their water usage.

Another way Denver Water and the Jasmine Project hope to reduce water use is by educating the public on water conservation techniques and new technology such as  Xeriscape landscaping. Denver Water will work with the City of Greenwood Village to educate residents on this Garden in a Box Program.  Denver Water provides a discount to customers who purchase the gardens and use them to replace a portion of turf in their landscape. The gardens consist of low?water?use plants, and come with a planting model so customers know how much space to leave between plants and how to arrange them. These Xeric areas, once established, will not require as much irrigation water. In conclusion, the Jasmine Project has demonstrated that healthy landscapes can be maintained by using less water and efficient watering techniques.

 

  •  Posted by on March 24, 2014 at 4:27 pm
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Feb 032014
 

BioThis council study session was held on January 27, 2014. The meeting had three major parts. It consisted of a tutorial of how to use a new tool to find properties for sale within the community, a discussion of a new investment policy, and an evaluation of the impact based notification system.

The new technology presented to the council members was very hands-on and easy to use. It had many great features such as the ability to find properties, companies, and offices that are for sale in our community. You can also select what type of building you would like to purchase, how much you want to pay, and the amount of square feet you desire. Another great feature this tool brings is the ability to specify the location you want based on the demographics of each available area. This tool is a great way to pull data together quickly and research available places for sale. It is ultimately an effective business expansion tool as companies that are looking to expand can search for locations within close proximity to their original locations.

Next, the new investment policy was presented at the meeting. The policy focused on maintaining the comfort level of the council members. It would be a policy that keeps the safety of the public dollar and allows for the investments to have high liquidity. This policy has an average maturity of 2.5 years to see a return or loss of the invested money as it is a low-risk proposal. This policy will give council members the ability to decide what, how, and when to invest.

To wrap the night up, council members discussed the impact based notification system. This was an update to the policy presented at the January 6, 2014 study session. The problem with the old system was that it had the possibility of notifying one neighbor while leaving its adjacent  neighbor unaware of any developments occurring. With the new policy, there would be no need for the GIS system. Instead, it would take an impact based approach. The proposed policy would be more concerned with impact based residential notifications rather than commercial ones. The council members expressed their feelings about the policy, but the official decision on the implementation of this policy will occur during the next council meeting.

 

 

  •  Posted by on February 3, 2014 at 9:14 pm
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Jan 122014
 

BioThis council study session was held on January 1st. At the beginning of the meeting Council members were discussing potential development and redevelopment projects. However, with the mature nature of the Greenwood Village community, they acknowledged that future development will be limited.  The main discussions City Council members had, were acknowledging that there is a relationship between the impacts of a proposed development action and the required mailed notification radius. These projects would require people living in a specific district and within certain proximity of the development to be notified of potential impacts it may cause. The City Code lists the types of impacts that need to be considered, such as traffic, view corridors, noise, property values, and the provision of public services in making an approval to develop an area or redevelop a pre-existing area. After reviewing those impacts, council members proceeded to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the current notification radius system.

The current notification method utilizes a lot level resolution to determine inclusion in the notification radius. This means that properties included within the radius will be notified and those that are outside of the radius will not be. This lot level resolution has some flaws as it produces disparate notification treatment among adjacent neighbors. The advantage of the approach is that the properties being notified can be easily identified and it is efficient for staff to generate a mailing list using the Arapahoe County’ GIS system. Some potential replacements to the current notification system could be notifications through the subdivision geographies and the homeowners associations. The use of the notification radius clearly has had its shortcomings. As an alternative to the use of the notification radius system, GV City Council members are looking to propose the creation of commercial development impact zones that would be standardized for each identified commercial area.

  •  Posted by on January 12, 2014 at 12:51 pm
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