City Council Minutes 2021 09 21 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Meeting Minutes September 21, 2021 Page 9 of 11 She noted some options to consider including only addressing new builds and redevelopment or adoption of amortization without proactive enforcement. Staff is asking for direction to see if Council still wants consideration of an amortization policy and if incentives should be considered. In place of amortization, the Council could consider proactive education and incentives or a non -conforming code. Public Comments Josh Cooperman, 216 Griffith Street, stated he supports a dark sky ordinance and an amortization process. He feels that without an amortization process the ordinance will be weak and it signals to citizens it is not important. He noted residents will save money on electricity by changing out fixtures. Councilmember Lipton stated we want to make this as easy as possible for homeowners to comply. He asked what Boulder's experience has been. Ritchie stated Boulder has not done enforcement other than with new development and redevelopment and they do not know what their compliance rate is. She stated it is a lesson making sure the ordinance is written with proper intention what you are able to enforce with staff resources. Councilmember Lipton stated he supports the dark skies ordinance but education is needed. He does not know how enforcement would fit in. He would prefer residents and merchants work to get it done without much City involvement. Mayor Pro Tern Maloney stated he also supports dark skies and agrees there are real issues with light pollution that need to be addressed but the it should be as simple as possible and we should use all our tools with education and incentives. We should work with the home improvement stores to get their help in selling compliant fixtures. Councilmember Fahey wondered if the program we have in place to help people pay utility bills could be used for incentive for this program. She agreed reaching out to the merchants would be a way to help sell compliant fixtures. Councilmember Brown stated any program we create needs to include an education component and giving homeowners a period of time to come into compliance. Mayor Stolzmann stated she would like to see a program that is fair and meaningful. She supports an amortization schedule to be sure people come into compliance. She asked if we could regulate the sales of fixtures in town to only those that are dark sky compliant. She would like to see an incentive program combined with enforcement and a regulatory framework. She asked staff to come back with some examples of how other cities have reached compliance. Mayor Stolzmann stated there needs to be a process for commercial and multifamily to come into compliance as well. She recommended a three-year schedule.