On August 16th, 2021 I attended my second City Council Study Session with the Greenwood Village City Government. As usual, the City leadership was very welcoming and supportive of my interest in learning more about city government.  The topics that were discussed at this meeting included ground-mounted solar panels, e-bikes on the Highline Canal Trail, and storm sewer staff addition.

I found it was interesting listening to the solar panel discussion because the City Council had also discussed this topic in the last study session I went to and I was familiar with the research on this discussion. This topic in fact did not come to a conclusion by the end of this meeting because there was confusion on the definition of ‘reasonably screened’. The confusion behind reasonably screened is a question around if, for example, there would be trees/plants used to screen the solar panels and would there be gaps in the trees. They wanted to clarify what percent was being screened, or if nothing at all can be seen and how do they regulate all of this. This is a very vague definition because “reasonable” can mean be interpreted differently by each individual and is too vague. What they are trying to do is have a specific way of measuring the ‘screening’ of the solar panels to make it easy to enforce the city ordinance. I learned from this topic that creating the right wording, definition, and specifications for an ordinance is very difficult and needs creativity.

The e-bike agenda topic included discussion on if the city should allow e-bikes on the Highline Canal Trail and, and if so, what speeds should the e-bikes be restricted to. They were able to conclude that the city would allow e-bikes on the trail and that a speed limit should be set, but a concluded speed limit was not determined.  They also recommended having a plan to install mph signs.

What was the most interesting part of this City Council Study Session to me was how easily the City Council was able to agree on allowing e-bikes on the trail compared to the solar panel decision. I look forward to learning how each of these ordinances turn out.

On my first visit to the City of Greenwood Village offices, I attended a City Council study session and observed our city government in action. Before the study session began I was given a tour around City Hall and met a few of our city government leaders. I was very impressed by how nice and professional everybody was.  This made my first visit to City Hall very welcoming. There were multiple topics covered over the three-hour session, each being presented on a screen for all attendees to easily follow along.

The first topic discussed was a proposal of reauthorization regarding the open space sales tax. In this presentation, they discussed the data around where the money for the open sales tax goes, which includes building parks, trails, and maintaining the open space. The open space sales tax in my opinion is a very important part of the Greenwood Village city budget and is what makes the town so unique. This reauthorization seemed really necessary and will hopefully be approved this coming August.

The most interesting topic for me to listen to was about ground-mounted solar energy systems and how to regulate them based on aesthetic and value. The main argument in this discussion was over which is more important, size regulating, reasonable screening, or the profits that are gained by the owner. This was a tricky discussion because solar panels are an investment and gain profit, but if homeowners aren’t allowed to put in enough because of looks then the purpose of it goes away. It was most interesting to me how the council was able to come up with exact measurements for each region of the city based on the size of land while considering how to mix all of the different opinions on how the solar panel should be regulated. Hopefully, by the next study session, the Council will be able to decide to choose either the visual option of 450 feet versus 600 feet plus a few other details.

In this study session, I learned the Council doesn’t always have to agree and make a decision on the first day a topic is presented to them and that the Council can always postpone and get more pictures or details to help them make the right decision for our city. I appreciated how much everyone contributed to the conversation and the different perspectives everyone shared.