Town Administrator                May 6, 2019

Notable Meetings.

• Board of Trustees Study Session. The Board considered the Boulder County Regional Housing Partnership presentation on Affordable/Attainable Housing. Trustees asked to schedule additional BoT discussion of A/AH tools, the need in Erie, and how those tools might apply. For reference, based on 2017 data, more than 20% of Erie homeowners are paying 30% or more of their income on housing (a common standard for determining housing affordability). For households who rent in Erie, almost half are paying more than 30% of their income on housing. Pictured are the stats for Erie and Weld County from the State Demographer’s website.
  
  
• Schools. In my meeting, this week Saint Vrain Valley School District Superintendent Dr. Don Haddad committed to fund 100% of the cost of a 2^nd School Resource Officer at the high school. Last week Boulder Valley School District Superintendent Dr. Rob Anderson committed to requesting funding for SROs in BVSD’s next budget. In both meetings, we all committed to information sharing and collaboration on development affecting schools, inclement weather response, safe routes to schools, and encouraging students to walk/bike to school. I appreciate the strong Town/School partnership we have because good schools are one of the key attributes of a thriving community.
  
  
• UDC Update. Planning staff and I met with representatives from the Home Builders Association of Metro Denver and local developers to solicit their suggestions on updates to the Town’s Unified Development Code (UDC). As I told them, we want to identify ways to make the requirements in UDC more clearly reflect the Board of Trustees’ desired development outcomes. By clarifying expectations for development, we can make the review process faster and more predictable. This first meeting with the HBA was more big picture; we will have a follow-up meeting to dive into specific UDC provisions.
  
  
• Lafayette IGA. Erie and Lafayette staff and legal counsel met to hammer out a final draft of the proposed IGA to resolve the Nine Mile and other disputes. Depending on Mayor/Trustee/URA Commissioner availability, we will present that IGA for consideration either May 14^th (BoT), May 16^th (URA), or at the next BOT meeting.
  
  
• Sustainability Advisory Board. During this meeting, SAB Member Wardlaw noted that current electric vehicles (EVs) save over $7,000 in fuel/energy and maintenance costs over 100,000 miles when compared with conventional gas vehicles. That’s one of several reasons why we are starting to incorporate EVs into the Town’s fleet (and why I personally drive an EV J). 
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•  The Board also considered the status of Comcast franchise agreement negotiations, possible new Federal regulations pertaining to “small cell” technology, and broadband service. The Board asked to bring back an analysis of options for improving broadband access (price and bandwidth).