March Mayor's Minute

Hello neighbors, Below are some Town Council highlights from last month and some upcoming topics. As always, I hope you can join us for tomorrow’s meeting or consider sharing your feedback with us about any of these matters. February 21 Meeting Highlights:

• The town is excited to welcome another new business, Sunshine Pharmacy, to the Mountain Village Center. They will be opening a second location in the Franz Klammer Building across from the Telluride Distilling Company's new Tasting Room. In addition to prescription pick-up service, health and wellness products, and other sundry items, Town Council approved Sunshine Pharmacy’s Fermented Malt Beverage Liquor License application at their Mountain Village location.
• Town Council discussed the continued use of lot OSP39 (commonly known as the wood lot) for tree removal staging. Since 2015, the town has informally allowed large private and forest-health property tree removal projects to drop-off chopped wood on the lot, where it is then picked up for use by local residents. The wood lot provides major cost savings for new home building and defensible space tree removal projects by reducing the transportation arborists’ charge for staging the wood outside of the Village. This cost savings further incentivizes community members to create defensible space on their properties in order to lower property owner’s wildfire risk.Town Council directed staff to conditionally keep the wood lot in the existing location as a courtesy with the provision that landscaping and trees are planted to shield the wood lot from being viewable from the Mountain Village Boulevard. The use of this area will continue to be observed and reviewed by Town Council in the future.
• We approved the formation of a Plaza Vending Committee to facilitate an open and transparent vendor selection process. The committee bylaws will be approved at a future meeting.
• Lastly, Michael Martelon provided Marketing Telluride's (MTI) quarterly update.

If you would like more specifics about any of these topics, you can watch a video of last month's meeting on the town's website and February's minutes will be posted online after they are approved at tomorrow's meeting. March 21 Agenda Topics:

• Town Council will consider a Settlement Agreement resolving litigation related to 161CR and Ridge at Telluride. This agreement is the result of months of direct negotiations between principal designated representatives from Lot 161CR, The Ridge HOA, The Ridge Club, some of The Ridge owners, and the town.
• Town Council will consider the appointments of five members to the Design Review Board (DRB). The DRB is made up of seven full-time members and two alternate members, who are all appointed by Town Council to two-year terms.
• An ordinance to implement a dismount zone in the Village Center plazas for both bicycles and skateboards will be considered by Town Council. Over the past few years, there has been an increasing number of accidents and incidents between bicycles and pedestrians in the Village Center. With the upcoming expansion of the bike park and summer use of lift 4 for bike park access, the town has been examining tactics used in other communities such as Fort Collins and Durango. If approved, the dismount zone would go into effect this summer.
• We will hold a work session to discuss potentially amending the Community Development Code (CDC) Residential Lighting Regulations. The purpose of the lighting regulations is to balance our need for residential outdoor illumination that allows us to enjoy our property while minimizing unintended negative impacts on neighbors and the surrounding community.
• Town Council will also hold a work session to consider a CDC amendment to clarify the definition of an Efficiency Lodge unit and to add a definition of “Short-Term Accommodation” as less than 30 consecutive days and no more than 60 days in a calendar year. These clarifications are being proposed to ensure that properties that were zoned to function as hotel rooms or “hot-beds,” are not used as a primary residence or as long-term rentals.
• We will hear an update about our Wildfire Mitigation Defensible Space Rebate and Cedar Shake Fire Mitigation Incentive Programs and consider changes to the program that we hope will encourage increased participation in the programs.
• Lastly, we will consider a resolution by the family, friends, and neighbors of Michael Ruterbories asking the town to rename the Village Court Community Garden as the “Michael Ruterbories Memorial Community Garden.” Michael, a longtime Mountain Village resident, gondola operator, and cherished friend to all who knew him passed away unexpectedly last month. He is greatly missed by the Town of Mountain Village and the community he adopted.

A full packet and agenda have been posted on our website; we welcome your input and hope to see you at the meeting. Warm regards, Laila Benitez Mountain Village Mayor