July Mayor's Minute

Dear neighbors, Despite the challenges of staying in-doors, your local government continues to work hard on many important issues. Last month, we made some important appointments to town boards including Angela Pashayan on the Ethics Commission and Liz Caton to the Design Review Board. I want to specifically thank not only those who are willing to serve, but all of the folks who threw their hat in the ring and showed a willingness to serve. Thank you all and your opportunity will come soon, so please stay engaged. Boards aside, we supported a letter to our senators to support the San Juan Mountains Wilderness Bill. In addtiion, we received public comment in a public hearing on the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with the Town of Telluride and San Miguel County to create a Regional Transit Authority (RTA) that could be on the ballot this November. It is important to note that your Council has fought for and secured the right of not only our residents, but also our second homeowners to vote on the RTA. Also, our planning director updated us on the Town Hall Center Subarea planning process that we are undertaking with the Telluride Mountain Village Owners Association and Telluride Ski & Golf. That effort will next select the consultant who will drive the process beginning this summer. We also received a report on grant making best practices that our Council will consider as we formalize our process for how the town supports important causes in our community. There was a collective desire to clarify the 'theories of change' that we would consider funding and getting more proactive so that we will drive towards these shared goals. We considered a term sheet from the developers of the old Telluride Apartments site in the Meadows that would create a town park and up to 45 workforce housing units. The parties are close to an agreement and Councilmembers Caton and MacIntire will work to close out the deal once an acceptable appraisal is received. Last, we considered adding and installing a mobile-based application to manage parking that allows our residents and guest to pay through their phones or extend their parking time from their phones. Staff is further evaluating this opportunity (which would exist in addition to our current ticket-based system). This month our work continues. We will begin our meeting later this week with a special recognition of our Mountain Village police officers. The horrific events in Dallas and Baton Rouge remind us of the important work they do, and while we feel insulated from these big city issues in our small town, we simply want to take a moment and thank our officers publicly. We will then move into our usual business and routine updates from Council and staff. We will consider a set of proposed changes from our Design Review Board on single-family lot subdivisions, and given that the town recently received an expression of interest from a private company in buying Village Court Apartments, Council will conduct a worksession on the merits of a potential sale versus ongoing town ownership. We will have a second reading of the proposed IGA for an RTA, where we hope to receive public input. Next, the Telluride Foundation will lead a discussion on the merits of public-private partnerships in the creation of workforce housing in the region. Finally, we will have a joint discussion with our Design Review Board on our shared processes for reviewing construction in the town with the goal of continuous improvement. Outside of our town-specific activities, we continue to work with our neighboring local, state and federal governments on issues facing our community. For example, I recently met with Senator Bennet to discuss important issues facing Mountain Village, and he was highly engaged and interested in helping us where possible. Later this week, we will be working with the Town of Telluride, San Miguel County, and the Tri-County Health Network on the pressing need for better mental health services in our region. Mayor Murphy of Telluride and I will be meeting with our counterparts from Montrose to discuss more regional cooperation scenarios soon. Many more examples exist that I would be happy to share with you, but suffice it to say, I don't think I have seen our region cooperating so effectively in many, many years. As always, we welcome your input and attendance in our meetings, so please join in. Warm Regards, Dan Jansen Mountain Village Mayor