A bill for an ordinance creating and establishing the RiNo Business Improvement District, appointing the initial members of the Board of Directors of the District, and approving the Initial Operating Plan and preliminary 2016 budget therefore. (BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT) Approves the creation and establishment of the RiNo Business Improvement District, appointing the initial members of the Board of Directors of the RiNo Business Improvement District, and approving the initial Operating Plan and preliminary 2016 budget located in Council Districts 8 and 9. The Committee approved filing this bill at its meeting 5-12-15.
And I want to commend his vision for that, because our hope had always been to have affordable housing and to be able to have a walkable community and for places that if they were in play downtown to be able to walk. So now everybody's going to be coming through Reno, including all the taxi cab drivers, through a very, very beautiful Brighton Boulevard in the surrounding area. So I'm supporting this. It's probably no surprise any of you and I would encourage my colleagues to do the same. Our next person is Jeannie Robb. Well, did you want to go to Councilman Brooks first? I would certainly yield. Oh, I am so sorry. That's okay. I. I didn't. I didn't accidentally erased your name. I'm just kidding. I didn't sign it. I didn't sign in because you gave me the brief. Compton Brooks. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. I guess I just want to open was saying, you know, I'll be supporting this business improvement district. I have. I believe this is our ninth in the city. 11th in the city. While we're growing, we're getting. I'll be supporting this this bit because I've seen firsthand the the return on investment the city gets from from bids from Colfax to downtown and now here. It's really exciting. And to see what you guys are doing, I, I just have kind of two words of encouragement. It's around great work. It's a, you know. You know, encouraging you for what you've done and the growth of what the work that you have in front of you, which would be a lot. One, the great work is somebody mentioned it before. Nowhere in the city do we have business leaders and artists working together and on the same page and coming up with plans. And so this is incredibly it's it's hard to bring two folks of different economic statures together and come up with the plan. And so we I think the city has a lot to learn from you all in that, you know, the other piece is is you make ugly look really cool and and I can I can I can say this because I basically live in Reno. Technically, I live in the whole neighborhood. We are not rhino, we are coal, but we live right next to rhino. And it is just it's amazing. I was on a bike ride on Saturday and I came down and Rhino is a great, beautiful day and everyone was in Rhino at the breweries out and about. And I'm just like, is the streets everything that you all said about the streets not being complete, no sidewalks, nowhere to park, but people are everywhere. And so you guys have done a great job and making it desirable. So good work on that and and working together business owners, property owners coming together and getting an overwhelming support the growth. It's funny that you have keeping while rhino don't because that's going to be the growth that's going to be the hardest thing to do is to keep it affordable for individuals to keep it eclectic enough and cool for the generation you're currently serving. Because there's another thing cool the next time. And so I just want to push you to be thinking out of the box. And because we don't have anything like this in the city and to continue doing that and our our promise on this side is that we will allow rhino to be a canvas and try new things with the city. So we're we're excited. And I'm excited to support this hope the rest of our colleagues do. And I just want to thank Councilwoman Monteiro for her 12 years over this district and her investing in her working with all of these developers and leaders to and not many people get to see their investment come to fruition and and you're getting to see it. So it's pretty cool if. You see keep. Councilman Robb. Thank you, Madam President. The work that you've done is truly remarkable. In fact, even though I didn't attend the committee meeting, I was able to watch part of it and printed out the slide presentation and took it to the Cherry Creek Steering Committee last week to present. Because even though Cherry Creek was one of the first two bids in the city and county of Denver, the business community and the neighbors have great desires to do infrastructure improvements that lie outside of the bid boundaries. In this model for putting a guide and a bid together in the overlapping, it has some potential for the area . Of course, people, like some people in the audience tonight were concerned, well, how will I know that my priorities are met? How do you set priorities? And I pointed out what a fast job you guys did. I said from October 2014 to May of 2015, I've never seen a bid and get it done so fast. It and I'm so glad to hear tonight that it's been a lot of years because I was thinking you were a real miracle workers in terms of accountability. I want to put my $0.02 in. So often when the bid operating plans come to council, they go through on consent. I think I can remember two or three times that they've been at committee. And I even though a bid is a really a creation of this of state of the state, I think we have a responsibility just on the transparency issues that were raised tonight, which, you know, are always a concern. Frankly, I think we have that responsibility to review them nine times out of ten. We won't have any comments. We won't have any changes that help. But it helps us know what we're ultimately accountable for in setting up these operating plans and budgets. Because even though the money doesn't run into the general fund, it is public money. So that would be my my wish for the next council is that people who have the bids in their district ask to have them present at committee periodically. Thank you. Councilman fights. Thank you, Madam President. Because of my concerns that I laid out earlier for financial structures, I want to be sure to address how I see this as entirely different. And I am very much in support of what has been presented here tonight. I had asked the question, what is the responsibility of the taxpayer? This is a 180 degrees on the other side of that. These are individuals who have joined together coming to us, not saying we want something from you, but saying let us tax ourselves so that we can make these improvements and so that we can at a later time. The second item is kind of make even enhanced public improvements. I mean, they are coming to us asking to take the responsibility of doing this for themselves. A fair amount of public money has gone into various aspects of rhino, which makes it even more pleasing to me to see people stepping forward and saying, we want to contribute as well. And we want to have control over that. So I'm just extremely proud of your doing that. Thank you so much. And you're setting a fine example. Councilman Ortega. I'll be brief. In 2003, when I left City Council, we had adopted Blueprint. Denver in this area was defined as one of the new growth areas for the city. And since that time, we have seen almost complete transformation. And I know there's still a lot yet to be done in terms of transforming. But to just see what has happened is is very exciting. And I know for those of you who are the boots on the ground, you're living it day in and day out. And it's it's fascinating to go down to the area, as Councilman Brooks said, and just see the vitality and the the amount of people. I think the challenge is how do we ensure that pedestrian bike safety is number one? Because you have the conflict of industrial vehicles from some of the existing industrial businesses in the area. You know, it's a straight shot without with very few lights, you know. So at least on Brighton corridor, I think you can say the same about Blake Street and what is it, Market Street that are one way corridors as well , that oftentimes people just kind of fly down those streets, they drive them pretty often. And so I look forward to hearing about the progress at the at the end or, you know, at your after your annual meeting and when your your budget request comes before city council. But way to go. I mean, you guys have done an outstanding job and it's exciting to see the progress that continues to be made in this area. So, yes, I will be supporting this tonight as well. Councilman Ortega, other comments by members of council seen none. Madam Secretary, roll call, please on council bill 304. Brown. I. Fats Pi coinage. Layman hi Nevitt hi Ortega. I. Rob I shepherd i. Susman I. Brooks, i. Madam President. I. Madam Secretary, closed the voting and announced the results. Oh. Drum roll, please. What happened? We've got it. We're all. In good. Hands. 11 eyes is going too fast. Okay. That was a lot of pent up enthusiasm. David For the next one counter Bill, three of four has passed. Councilman Brown, will you please put council bill three or nine on the floor? Thank you. Madam President, I move the council bill three or nine be placed upon final consideration and do pass.