Hi neighbors! In Monday night’s Town Board Meeting, we interviewed an applicant for the Planning Commission; heard an update from Serendipity Catering at the Superior Community Center; approved a new Town Governmental Fee Schedule for room rentals at the Superior Community Center; issued a liquor license for Serendipity Events at the Superior Community Center; approved a modification of premises and trade name for Rock Creek Entertainment / Rock Creek Bar & Grill; accepted PARC’s recommendation to move forward with drafting a design / build contract with Star Playgrounds for a renovation of Purple Park playground; approved a contract with Asphalt Specialties for the 2021 Street Project for McCaslin Boulevard; and held an executive session to discuss legal claims against the Town by Daryl McCool. 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 2D – Board Reports

During Board reports, I remarked on some of the issues I uncovered while attending the last Board meeting virtually, and made a call to my fellow Board members to make it standard practice to turn on their cameras on Zoom even while they are attending in person, so that anyone participating remotely, including our residents, can see our faces throughout the meetings. Trustee Paige Henchen and I made it a point to keep our cameras on for this meeting, and I hope the rest of the Board will join us for future meetings!

I also reported that I’m really happy with the success of this year’s July 4th celebrations, even though there were some issues with the Downhill Mile race that I’ve raised with our Town Manager. (Specifically, I’d like next year for us to pursue a time trial format, as our Board discussed in the meeting, and I’d also like us to go back to offering technical tee shirts rather than cotton tee shirts. Finally, there was no food or drink at the finish, not even water, which I think needs to change, particularly given the price point of the race.) But on the flip side, huge kudos to Town Staff, and in particular, Cultural Arts and Events Supervisor Deanna Miller, for the full day of events and our grand opening of the Superior Community Center – I heard nothing but positive feedback from everyone in attendance!

Another member of the Board mentioned that our Superior Community Center website is not easy to navigate and see all the activities. I agree with this feedback, and encouraged our Town Manager to build out the SCC website and create a view that allows residents to see all activities in the SCC at a glance; I also asked that we begin emailing out these activities, perhaps in our Sunday Weekly Town Happenings email, to further drive visibility and attendance.

Item 2E – Public Comment

During public comment, resident Christina Henley spoke up about the community center fees that we would be discussing as part of agenda item 9. She noted that there are 20 Girl Scout troops in Superior, all of whom must find their own spaces to meet. Prior to COVID19, most troops met at the community room at the Fire Station, which was free, but was very difficult to book due to the demands of the community. Ms. Henley pointed out that Louisville Library offers the meeting space free for nonprofit groups, and suggested that if there needs to be a limit, it should be two meetings per month. Resident Erica Liebovitz also spoke up to support Christina’s opinion.

Resident Brad Walker spoke up about the RMMA noise roundtable, and said that after six months, the roundtable hasn’t accomplished anything. Mr. Walker pointed out once again that he thinks we ought to require notice to purchasers of homes in Superior about the noise issues, which is something being discussed by the roundtable.

Residents Suzanne Sawyer-Ratliff and Megan Williams attended on Zoom to express concerns with berming in Original Town that has impacted building heights, allowing them to be higher than permitted.

Adrian Laws, a new resident of Downtown Superior (DTS), expressed concerns that the revision of the plans for the park in Downtown Superior cuts back on the green space to make too much room for parking. Another DTS resident, Brian, concurred, and also mentioned that it floods every time it rains and doesn’t seem to have adequate drainage. DTS resident Anthony Harrigan echoed the concerns about drainage, and also asked what the process would be for residents to ask questions and engage in dialogue. I reminded everyone that while we can’t go back in forth at Board meetings, our First Friday meetings, held on the first Friday of every month, are a great opportunity for robust discussion – I would encourage everyone to attend!

Resident Chris Ochs spoke up against the affordable housing presentation we’d be hearing during presentations. Mr. Ochs believes that it’s unfair for Boulder County to set targets for Superior for affordable housing, when we are 4 square miles in size while they are 27 square miles in size, and said that Boulder should bear their share. Mr. Ochs also pointed out that the role of the Trustees is to preserve our town, not to acquiesce to developers who likely do not live in Superior.

Item 3 – Planning Commission Interviews

Next, our Board interviewed one applicant for two vacancies on our Planning Commission – Jenn Kaaoush. We will also need to interview applicant Rachel Stanton, and then will act on these potential appointments.

Item 4I – Presentation – Serendipity Update

Laura Zaspel, owner of Serendipity Catering, and Gwen Buehler, service manager, attended to provide an update and answer Board questions on catering services at the Superior Community Center. I thanked Serendipity for their service with a smile (say hi to Gwen when you see her behind the counter!), and asked them to please consider putting their menus online. Serendipity did a great job creating a paper survey of menu preferences for residents at the July 4th opening, and I also suggested that they consider launching an online resident survey, which may help get more respondents.

Food service is currently running 9am-3pm Monday through Thursday, 9am-8pm on Friday, 3pm-10pm on Saturday, and 12pm-2pm on Sunday; our Board asked for these operating hours to also be included on the website. A member of the Board also asked for these hours to be expanded, but Ms. Zaspel provided some very sobering data about how hard it is to get workers in the restaurant industry right now: last week, when 50 interviews were scheduled, literally no one showed up. I sincerely appreciated Ms. Zaspel’s honesty about the challenges she is facing, and her commitment to continue working to solve this. I would encourage the community to check out the job opportunities posted here, and pass these along to anyone you know who might be a fit. Let’s help staff Serendipity with Superior residents!

Item 4II – Presentation – Concept Plan for Affordable Housing at Superior RTD

Based on the feedback received from the Town Board in May, the Boulder County Housing Authority (BCHA) has developed two slightly different Concept Plans for a potential affordable housing project at the Superior Marketplace near the RTD. Both Concept Plans are for rental housing, and would target households of $24K-70K per year, depending on household size. Both Concept Plans would divide the RTD site in two, with Phase I proposed south of Center Drive and Phase II proposed to the north. Concept A would be a 4-story building with 101 units, 90 parking spaces, and 2,000 square feet of community area. Concept B would be a 4-story building with 109 units, 95 parking spaces, and 2,500 square feet of open space.

We had some critical technical issues that forced us to shift our agenda, so we will hear this presentation and public comment at the next Board meeting on August 9th.

Item 4III – Presentation – Concept Plan for Central Park

The technical issues prevented us from hearing this presentation; we will instead hear this at our next Board meeting on August 9th. Instead, we took public comment from those who were already at Town Hall in person, and then will hear additional public comment at our next meeting along with the presentation.

Downtown Superior resident Erin Hurston had concerns about per capita green space in downtown Superior. She was adamantly against adding more parking for the Sports Stable at the expense of green space. Ms. Hurston also didn’t believe that pools, basketball courts, and tennis courts are needed in this area, since Purple Park and the North Pool are less than a mile away by trail. Ms. Hurston instead would prefer for us to have a dog park, as many residents of Downtown Superior are currently using the tiny Village Green Park as a de facto dog park.

Item 5 – Consent Agenda

Next, our Board unanimously passed the consent agenda – including meeting minutes and easements on South Third Ave.

We issued a correction to the minutes from our June 28th meeting, noting that for our final item, action on executive session to discuss the Brightview landscaping contract, I voted yes to terminate the contract and Trustee Tim Howard voted nay (the two votes were reversed). You can read more on that here. These minutes were then approved unanimously.

Item 9 – Town Fee Schedule for the Community Center

Each October, we approve a Town Governmental Fee Schedule for the following year. In 2020 and 2021, the Parks, Recreation & Open Space (PROS) Department completed a Cost of Service analysis and conducted a benchmarking exercise with neighboring communities to evaluate current fees and make future recommendations. The current Town of Superior Government Fee Schedule provides a discounted rate for Superior residents, but does not call out fees specific to non-profit groups; our Board has recently received requests from non-profit groups to use the Community Center for no charge.

I proposed a new option: let nonprofit groups know that the $15 fee will be waived twice a month provided they actually show up to use it (i.e., no-shows would not be refunded). We want our Community Center to be activated and used, and I have heard many complaints about the free room at the Fire Station getting booked by people who no show, with it being next to impossible to actually book the room as a result. Another member of the Board suggested waiving the fees twice per month for all users, whether nonprofits or for-profits or informal groups, which the rest of the Board supported. Resident Jamie Buck asked a question about what constitutes a group; our Town Attorney clarified that each Superior resident will be able to make up to two bookings per month for free.

This passed unanimously.

Item 6 – Liquor License for Serendipity Events

A public hearing was held to consider issuing a beer and wine liquor license for Serendipity Events at the Superior Community Center. After some discussion to ensure that Serendipity would take the necessary precautions to avoid overserving and to avoid serving minors, we issued the license by unanimous vote.

Item 7 – Modification of Premises for Rock Creek Entertainment

Next, Rock Creek Entertainment (doing business as Rock Creek Bar and Grill) shared their application to expand their licensed premises to include the entire building, outdoor sidewalks, and patio. This would allow people to go between the two different areas (the restaurant and the Fairways at the Sports Stable golf area) with alcohol, and allow the implementation of a wristband system to curb underage drinking and help ensure people are not bringing their own alcohol for other areas within the facility. Rock Creek Entertainment also applied for a trade name change from Rock Creek Bar & Grill to Angry Horse Eatery.

Before voting, I disclosed that Fairways at the Sports Stable made an in-kind contribution of $167 to my 2018 election campaign. I do not believe this affects my ability to be impartial on this application, so I continued to vote. Our Board approved this unanimously.

Item 8 – PARC Recommendation for Purple Park Playground Design and Build

Purple Park Playground was built in the 1990s, and is due for renovation; our 2021 Capital Improvement Budget included funds for the renovation. The Park and Recreation Advisory Committee (PARC) participated in the development of an RFP for the design, demolition and installation of a new playground at Purple Park, which received six bids. The top two vendors, Star Playgrounds and Triple M Recreation, were invited to present to PARC on June 30th, and PARC recommended that our Board move forward with Star Playgrounds.

Erin Starr from Star Playgrounds joined the Board Meeting to share two designs for consideration, both of which are outer space themed. Design option 1 would feature a short zipline, standard swings, several slides, a Unity RockR, and a custom obstacle course with multiple elements linked together. Design option 2 has a longer zipline, a Unity Hoopla swing, and four stories of decks with Kaleido barriers and slides coming off at multiple levels.

I really loved the unique tower of design 2, but was disappointed that this design didn’t include individual swings, as we currently have at Purple Park. Another member of the Board noted that this tall tower may make more sense when we do a future renovation of Community Park, which sits lower and wouldn’t have as many homes around (who may object to the height); however, that renovation is not due any time in the near future. We heard from Ms. Starr that it might be possible to incorporate the individual swings into option 2, perhaps by including a shorter zipline. Given that we don’t have immediate plans to renovate Community Park and potentially include a tall structure elsewhere, I had a strong preference for the unique and iconic option 2.

We unanimously accepted PARC’s recommendation to move forward with Star Playgrounds and draft a design/build contract for future consideration by the Board.

Item 10 – 2021 Street Project Contract for McCaslin Boulevard

The proposed annual Street Rehabilitation Project for 2021 includes resurfacing improvements on McCaslin Blvd, from SH 128 to Coalton Road. They combined this resurfacing with a few other maintenance items (night-time patching of the McCaslin/Marshall intersection, crack-sealing, and a mill and overlay for Honey Creek Lane), and bid the project out with two responses. The low bidder was Asphalt Specialties at $2.9M; Goodland Construction came in $504K higher.

The allocated funds are about $200K short of the $2.9M, since we have added the additional work on Honey Creek Lane. If the Board decides to proceed with the addition, Town Staff suggested getting the extra funds from the General Fund reserves. We discussed the ramifications of pulling out the Honey Creek Lane improvements, and ultimately decided to do so. We unanimously approved the reduced $2.7M contract with Asphalt Specialties.

Item 11 – Executive Session to Discuss Legal Claims Against the Town by Daryl McCool

Finally, by a vote of 6-1 (with Mayor Clint Folsom as the dissenting vote), we went into executive session with our Town Attorney Kendra Carberry to discuss legal claims against the Town by Daryl McCool.

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.