Hi neighbors! In Monday night’s Town Board Meeting, we interviewed residents for our Superior Youth Leadership Council; approved a construction contract with Star Playgrounds for a new Purple Park Playground; approved a $1.6M construction contract to extend Promenade Drive from Downtown Superior to 88th Street; and opened a public hearing to consider an FDP for 22 single-family homes on blocks 26 and 27 in Downtown Superior. Ready to find out more on what happened? As usual, you may read this post in written form, subscribe to the Laura for Superior podcast, or scroll to the bottom for a video recap.

Disclaimer: While I do my best to represent an honest and accurate portrayal of meetings and events, the following should be considered an editorial that represents one person’s interpretation. At the request of my fellow Board members, I am not attributing any points to them. For the most unbiased and complete information, I encourage residents to watch the meeting video and draw their own conclusions – visit the town website at SuperiorColorado.gov for the official meeting video and meeting minutes.

Item 2E – Public Comment

During public comment, resident Barbara Pennell Jaynes expressed her opposition to the affordable housing concept plan reviewed at our last Board meeting.

Resident Andy Jacobs expressed concern around the loss of trees in Superior due to emerald ash borers. Our current plan is to replace lost trees on a one for one basis, but Mr. Jacobs did not feel this was sufficient; he encouraged us to partner with local arborists, identify and protect high value trees, and communicate with residents so that they may be able to protect the trees in their own yards.

Mr. Jacobs also expressed his appreciation for the Town’s annual hosting of the Rocky Mountain Women’s Disc Golf Championship – a sentiment our Board has heard echoed from dozens of emails sent to the Board over the last few days. Ray Woodruff, tournament director for the Mile High Disc Golf Club, also attended the meeting to thank us for hosting the tournament this weekend and to make himself available for any questions or concerns with the tournament. Resident Terrie Clark also reported that she attended the tournament and found the players to be courteous and respectful; she asked for the course to stay up for a few days so residents could enjoy playing it as well.

Item 3 – Interviews with Potential SYLC Members

Next, we interviewed 10 young residents who have applied to be on our Superior Youth Leadership Council (SYLC): Madisyn Dudek, Akshath Murali, Prerana Vishwanath, Shriya Biddala, Yash Ruhil, Hivin Wijesekara, Sania Joshi, Aditya Dhar, Hiyumi Wijesekara, and Caitlyn Sun. We asked each applicant to tell us why they wanted to join the SYLC; a common theme was gratitude for the opportunity to grow up in such a wonderful town, and a desire to pay it forward and give back to the community. As the Board liaison to the SYLC, these interviews made me very excited to work with these bright future leaders!

Item 4 – Consent Agenda

Next, our Board unanimously passed the consent agenda – including meeting minutes, appointments to the Superior Youth Leadership Council, and an alcohol permit for Purple Park for the Boulder Hockey Club.

Item 2E, a Resolution Approving the Construction Contract with Star Playgrounds for Purple Park Playground, was pulled for discussion. In response to some Board member prompting, we’ve received a few emails with concerns about the proposed height of this structure. Personally, I disagree. While I was initially on the fence about this design, I recently had the opportunity to visit Nottingham Park in Avon, which had a similar multi-story structure… and the kids with me said it was the best playground they’ve ever been to. I think building a similar structure would be quite a coup for Superior! Furthermore, our design process, from the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee (PARC) work to issue requirements and select a vendor, to our own Board feedback to Star Playgrounds at our July 12 meeting, has been completely open to the public, and the feedback has been largely positive. This resolution ultimately passed 5-2, with Mayor Pro Tem Mark Lacis and Trustee Neal Shah as the dissenting votes.

Item 5 – Resolution Supporting Sales and Use Tax Ballot Measure

At our last Board meeting, we voted unanimously to approve the placement of a ballot measure increasing sales taxes by 0.28% in 2022 and an additional 0.16% in 2023, to raise $1.6M annually for multi-modal transportation improvement projects. At Monday’s Board meeting, we considered a resolution supporting this ballot initiative, and delineating our reasons for putting this on the ballot. This resolution is important because individual members of the Board will not be permitted to urge residents to vote one way or the other. The resolution passed unanimously.

Item 6 – Resolution Approving a Construction Contract with Goodland Construction for the Promenade Street Project

Next on the agenda was a contract with Goodland Construction to extend Promenade Drive from Downtown Superior to 88th Street. Although the original plan for Superior was to have Coal Creek Drive connect to Downtown Superior, the Board decided in 2019 to cap the ends of Coal Creek Drive and instead use Promenade Drive as the south exit from Downtown Superior. This controversial vote had some downstream impacts, as the developer was on the hook to pay for the road connection via Coal Creek Drive, but not for the longer connection via Promenade Drive. Therefore, the proposal was to take the $1.58M needed to build the Promenade Drive road connection from the Town Budget.

Our Board received numerous emails from residents asking us not to spend taxpayer funds building this road, particularly when the retail portion of Downtown Superior has not yet been built and there would not be an economic windfall in the form of sales tax revenue to offset that cost. There was some discussion that we needed to build this road in order for Downtown Superior to succeed, but my opinion is that it remains to be seen whether this connection will truly be needed, and we could decide this as Downtown Superior gets closer to completion. By building the road now, we are paying $1.6M for a road that will only really be used by construction trucks in the short-term, which would cause significant wear and tear to the road. It’s possible that developers in Downtown Superior would help pay for the road if they too believed it were needed, and building at a later date would help preserve the quality of the new road rather than having it quickly beaten down by construction traffic.

The contract passed 5-2, with Mayor Clint Folsom, Mayor Pro Tem Mark Lacis, and Trustees Paige Henchen, Tim Howard, and Ken Lish in favor; Trustee Neal Shah and I were the dissenting votes.

Item 7 – FDP for 22 Single-Family Homes on Blocks 26 and 27 in Downtown Superior

Finally, we opened a public hearing to consider a final development plan (FDP) from Ranch Capital and Remington Homes for 5 single family homes on Block 26 and 17 single family homes on Block 27 in Downtown Superior. The applicants previously presented a proposal to develop this area with 24 lots, but concerns were raised about front-loaded garages, driveway depths (and the potential for sidewalk obstructions), attached vs detached sidewalks, and the number of curb cuts required for individual driveways. By removing two lots, the developers have now allowed for a shared driveway design, created more separation between buildings, and allowed the streetscape to be designed with tree lawns and detached sidewalks.

On Monday night, we heard the initial presentation from the developer, and then a few members of the Board asked some questions before we took public comment. However, we did not complete the review of the application before the end of the meeting. Instead, a motion passed unanimously to continue this to the next meeting on Monday September 13. As this application is still under consideration, I am not legally permitted to comment on it outside of the formal Board meetings, so will refrain from robust commentary at this time.

Wrap Up

Thank you so much for taking the time to read / listen to this recap – I hope it is helpful! Our Board is always open to hearing your comments, questions, and concerns – you may always email your feedback to townboard@superiorcolorado.gov, or to me specifically at lauras@superiorcolorado.gov. As a reminder, any messages sent to a government email are part of the public record and will have your name attached; if you feel the need to write in anonymously, you may always comment at the bottom of my blog post recaps.