Study Session- Solar Panels & E-bikes

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.