City Council Minutes 2015 10 06 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Meeting Minutes October 6, 2015 Page 14 of 26 Chris Rathweg, 605 W. Hawthorne Street, Louisville, CO voiced his support for the community garden. Betty Soleck, 725 Lincoln Avenue, Louisville, CO also supported the community garden and felt it would foster community interaction. Her experience with gardening was the community garden at the Louisville Art Center. She felt this community garden is important to the community. The community garden will address the physical challenges and add visual enhancements. As an Old Town resident, she understood the impacts of parking, but felt they were overrated. Michael Menaker, 1827 W. Choke Cherry Drive, Louisville, CO supported the community garden. His concern centered on the lottery of plots. He felt the value of community garden is the opportunity to garden. He felt there should be a preference for residents living in lower income housing such as the apartments and the trailer park. He noted many of those residents do not speak English and suggested bi- lingual flyers be distributed throughout the area. He supported the buddy system for seniors. Sherry Sommers, 910 S. Palisade Court, Louisville, CO voiced her concern over the sustainability of the gardening association. She asked what would happen if the group loses interest or the desire goes away. Would there be City oversight. Mayor Muckle called for additional public comment and hearing none, closed the public hearing. COUNCIL COMMENTS Council member Keany asked Planning and Building Safety Director Russ to address the role of the Gardening Association. Planning and Building Safety Director Russ reviewed the layer of City regulations as follows: 1) It is on City park property; 2) There is a License Agreement; 3) Park's Department oversight; 4) Complaint driven, the SRU is revocable. Council member Lipton voiced his concern for the expectation of an established neighborhood. The introduction of a community garden will bring additional traffic to the area and impact existing parking. He asked why Cottonwood Park was not considered. Planning and Building Safety Director Russ explained the Planning Staff was not asked to look at alternative sites. They have been working on this application and not location analysis for altemative sites. Council member Lipton requested some consideration on how this would impact the neighbors. He was supportive of community gardens, but felt there has to be some sensitivity to the neighborhood. He was also concemed about nuisances created by wildlife and predators.