Approves a new Building Plan for the Denver Zoo at City Park, in Council District 8, as required by the Denver Zoning Code. (INFRASTRUCTURE & CULTURE) The last regularly scheduled Council meeting within the 30-day review period is on - -15.  The Committee approved filing this bill by consent on 3-25-15.
It has been moved and seconded. The public hearing for Council Bill 172 is now open. May we have the staff report? Council. President, Members of Council, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you and present the future vision of Denver Zoo, the most popular cultural institution in Colorado. And I think you'll see in the audience some pink flamingo support. So if you're wondering what these little pink stickers are, let me start by saying an amazing amount of work has gone into this plan. It's been in development since 2009. Over 10000 hours have gone into it. We've consulted with not only the best zoos in the country, but numerous stakeholders, including students, teachers, community leaders and neighborhood groups . Most recently, you've been hearing about our public meetings series and online outreach. The feedback we've heard over the last five years has been extremely important in shaping this plan. And the feedback we heard in the last three months containing over 550 comments has also been incorporated into the plan, and the feedback will receive in the next five years is going to be important to this plan. The Denver Zoo is committed to receiving ongoing public input, and that dialog does not end or begin. Today. We are the community zoo and we only exist because of the support of the community. Now there is a sense of urgency here. We've heard loud and clear from the public that animal care should be a top priority. I'm here to tell you today that our first project will be a new home for our endangered tigers. And the great news is that this project is completely funded. Tonight, we seek your approval of Denver Zoo's building plan. We're not expanding into the park. There's 71 buildings now. There's 71 buildings in the future. And our tallest building is a tree. The facility's master plan has been approved by the Parks and Recreation Manager as outlined in our operating agreement. And your approval tonight allows several key items to occur. It allows critical animal care and infrastructure upgrades to be made to our facility, keeping Denver Zoo a national leader in animal care and conservation. It allows opportunities for local students and families to connect with animals and nature through our education satellites in this plan. And it also allows me to energize Denver Zoo's board to continue to fundraise and invest back in our transformative institution. Please allow me also to explain what the approval of the building plan is. Not approval of the building plan is not a blank check for development and expansion. Approval of the building plan does not exempt the zoo from following all current or future building design. Permitting construction requirements and processes and approval of the building plan does not exempt the zoo from continuing to work with Parks and Recreation Council and our neighbors. All public engagement steps have been completed in coordination with Parks and Recreation, in accordance with our cooperative agreement with the city. We directly invited 14 rhinos which surround the zoo to participate in the process. Along with us, the community meeting schedule and online feedback opportunities were shared via our website social media through our Zoo publications because we serve many different stakeholders representing many different people in the metro region. This was all done in good faith and to the best of our capabilities. We very intentionally consulted with a third party facilitator in order to emphasize transparency and conduct real time polling during meetings, allowing us to dig into the why behind many responses and prioritize community feedback. This format, along with the interactive online model, made the feedback process a two way communication. The engagement meetings resulted in the development of a new chapter in the master plan called Zoo Community Interface and Intentional Discussion and Acknowledgment of the Denver Zoo integrating into City Park. We also tested and ultimately included an additional guiding principle to the plan titled Community, which will help guide us in our ongoing commitment with the diverse communities that we serve. Please let me share with you this guiding principle. Denver Zoo is a part of City Park of Denver, the nation and the world. We value diverse communities in which we belong. As part as Denver's City Park. We respect our neighbors and we build upon the legacy of the zoo within the park and strive to achieve the best physical and operational presence for all the communities that we serve. Council I ask that you approve this building plan tonight. So Denver Zoo may continue to provide life changing experiences for Colorado citizens for another hundred years. Good evening. I'm Laurie Danny Miller, executive director of Denver Parks and Recreation. And I'm here tonight to support the adoption of the building plan as presented to you for the future build out of the Denver Zoo. As you know, the zoo has done extensive outreach on their master plan and the building plan itself. You'll hear about registered neighborhood meetings, citywide meetings, outreach to our planning and design staff, and outreach to the greater zoo community through an online survey. You'll also hear of how the input at the meetings shape changes to the original plan, since the neighbors were interested primarily at that time about how the southern and western edges of the zoo interfaced with the park. Tonight's hearing is being held as a requirement of the Denver Revised Municipal Code, which requires a public hearing for any buildings that are proposed in parks over 3000 square feet or over 35 feet high. You will note that the plan in front of you does contain buildings exceeding that threshold. The zoo forwarded the building plan to US Denver Parks and Recreation after their final public meeting on March 10th. We heard the master plan at the and the building plan at the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board on March 12th, and it was supported unanimously by Prabhu. Denver Parks and Recreation then forwarded that building plan to City Council for review at their March 25th. Infrastructure and Culture Committee for Review. However, we realized on April 9th that we had not completed the required R.A. notification per the code. So we asked for a delay in this public hearing from last week to this week so we could notify R.A. of this hearing. That notice happened on April 10th for tonight's April 20th hearing. Your passing in this plan does not give the zoo carte blanche rights to commence building without future outreach and planning. As Shannon mentioned, it simply identifies which buildings are slated to expand, be demolished or added all within the footprint of the current boundaries. Any construction that will impact City Park will require approval of the building plans, respective city agencies and cooperation with our office in order to minimize impacts on the park. I believe you. Here are some folks tonight in support of the plan and some opposed. Mostly, the opposition will be focused on how the zoo is impacting the park and its successful functioning. However, I must remind you all that the zoo is in the park. There is not a property line delineating the zoo from the park. The zoo is not moving, as some folks here tonight may suggest, but rather they're a trusted and vital partner in the cultural environment of City Park. When you when you look at your plan and realize that all of the improvements contemplated are completely within the footprint of the zoo, you will conclude that they get that the zoo gets, that improvements will be on their current site and not beyond it. They have even contemplated expansion of underground parking so as to lessen parking impact on the park. I believe this is a major indication of the zoo's intent to stay within their footprint of the plan. When construction happens in city parks, like in any park, yes, there will be disruption. When we improve the parking lot adjacent to the City Park Pavilion, there was a decrease in the amount of parking available. Construction causes disruption. In this case, temporary disruption of the circulation due to possible buildings with the zoo will be minimal since it's within the zoo boundaries. I conclude by saying I believe the zoo made significant efforts to inform and engage surrounding neighborhood associations and their building plan, while ambitious, will only add to the success and sustainability of this wonderful institution within City Park. Thank you, the council, for a chance to speak. My name is George Parnham, the vice president for design and campus management at Denver Zoo. And I'll be very brief, because it's already been stated a couple of times, but I specifically just want to call attention to the plan that that under consideration tonight, specifically this building plan. Just try to highlight a couple of points in this plan that I think are significant as it already has been stated. The plan is really in some ways a reduction of a lot of work, a lot of collaboration, and in many in many cases, a lot of content that our master plan represents. But just because it is a reduction in no means makes this plan less exciting, less deliberate and less rigorous. There is a tremendous amount of intention and and we think collaboration and positive impact for the for the future inside of this plan. I'll call attention to just a couple of things that have already been stated. There's 71 buildings in the zoo currently, and this plan shows 71 buildings in the zoo. At the end of this this plan, 32 buildings would be removed through construction process and the development of this plan, and 32 buildings would be added through through this plan for a very exciting world class facility. It's already been noted. I want to make sure that that I reiterate this. The building plan calls calls for us to show you buildings that are over 3000 square feet or taller than 35 feet. The largest building buildings on this plan actually are are two buildings that have 500 parking spaces underneath them. Each building has 250 parking spaces underneath them. And you see that noted on your plan. That's what makes the square footage so large and large in those buildings. But that's truly a commitment and a very deliberate act to try to improve and listen to the things that have been going on over several years and to that principal of community to make sure that our operational presence in the park is is the best that it can possibly be. That's why there's 500 parking spaces indicated on this plan. There's only one building that that is taller than 35 feet in this plan. And it's a tree, an artificial tree, a tree that has a classroom in it, that overlooks an African savanna where kids are going to be able to come to the zoo and engage in our education programs and enjoy world class exhibit tree. This plan, like I said, is rigorous and deliberate, and I'll just leave you with this. The reason is, is that we're responsibility. We're responsible for taking care of animals and taking care of our public and educating them. That's what this plan does. It gives us an incredibly incredible vision for a new zoo where we can do a world class exhibit tree, take care of animals and educate our public. Thank you all for that staff report. We have 19 individuals signed up to speak this evening. This evening, 17 in favor, two opposed. I'm going to call the first five up. You can make your way to the first pew. Doug Tisdale, Hank Booth, Tom Wiggs, Louis Pawlikowski and Paulie Reeds. And apologies for any mispronunciations on that so you five can make your way up. And welcome, Mayor. You can go ahead and begin your remarks. May it please the Council. Good evening, Mr. President. Counselors, my name is Doug Tisdale. I'm proud to be one of Mayor Hancock's appointees to the Denver Zoo Board. And in that capacity, you would expect me to support this council bill. And I do. But you also know me as a former mayor, as one of the officers of Dr. Kaag and of CML and the National League of Cities. You know me as a regionalist and as a regionalist. I truly understand what an amazing asset the Denver Zoo is to the residents of Denver, of the Denver region and of the state of Colorado. The Denver Zoo is consistently ranked as one of the top five zoos in the country. It's the most popular cultural attraction in Colorado, welcoming 2 million guests every year with almost one out of five of those guests enjoying free access to your zoo. Its educational programs reach over 140,000 people annually. You're familiar with the accolades? I won't repeat them. I'll just highlight one fact. The Denver Zoo began in 1896. In 1918, your zoo opened its first major physical structure, Bear Mountain. Over the past 97 years, there have been a number of improvements constructed on this historic site. But time and technology advance and these buildings age. Making your zoo one of the best in the nation is a continuing process. That's what this park building plan is all about. Your zoo spent countless hours in planning and meetings with neighbors and experts and the stakeholders to address the needs of this cultural icon. That careful and considered process resulted in this plan crafted with tremendous sensitivity to the environment our neighbors, our guests, and our overseers. That's the trustees. And you we ask, therefore, tonight that you give your final approval so that our Denver Zoo can continue to do what is needed to maintain its status as a premier zoo in the United States, and to become the number one cultural attraction, not just in the state of Colorado, but in the Rocky Mountain West . I urge you to vote yes on Council Bill 15 172. Thank you. Thank you. Hank Boots. Evening. You can see by my pink flamingo. I don't hate the zoo. I take this opportunity to talk about the process before the council. However, four months ago, City Park friends and neighbors was told that a neighborhood advisory committee would be in the interests of the zoo, the museum, the city council and the neighbors surrounding the zoo. To date, we've gone nowhere with that. And I'm here to ask again for support from the council to get this formed. The zoo and the museum are amenable to this. We've had conversations with people from both institutions and it would be helpful if we could engage in this process a little better. I'd like to say that the plan itself is so vague that it's really hard to be opposed to it. But one thing we do know is it will impact parking during construction and the citizen involvement on a survey only goes so far. I took the survey ten times and I moved all over the country when I took it. So neighborhood involvement, I think, needs to be a little stronger. The other issue that has come up I mentioned is the ten day notice. I appreciate that it was delayed. This vote was delayed to give ten days notice. I'm urging the council to consider it really needs to be 30 days notice. R.A. don't meet every week. They don't meet every two weeks. They meet once a month. And for every R.A. affected, if you miss, if you get a ten day notice three days after your monthly meeting, the ten day notice is worthless. You can't get people to reschedule their lives and attend another important meeting to discuss these issues. Those are my two points. I want to see the NRC get off the dime and there are now going to be two council people that have districts about the zoo, and I'm asking them in particular to engage and bring the neighbors in on a formal way, as we were discussing four months ago. It's time to get going on that. Thanks very much. Thank you, Tom Wiggs. Good evening, Mr. President. Members of Council. I'm a member of your district. I live in your district. I've lived there since 1947. So 68 years is in Park Hill. I went to the zoo as a tyke. I kids went to the zoo as takes and our grandkids go to the zoo as Takes. It's a wonderful institution and it has been emphasized that this is not an increase in footprint. And the biggest thing is the baobab tree, which is going to be a pretty neat thing for the zoo. I think. Just as you see from the outside, though, the goal of the zoo is a better world for animals through understanding. And we've been engaged and I say that I'm retired and my wife and I both retired when we both volunteer at the zoo, at the museum, we've tutored at Parkhill and we've worked in homeless programs in Denver. So we're involved in the community and we see this as a gem of the community. And we urge your approval of this, this current amendment to the plan. I would call to your attention this really neat book. It doesn't necessarily impact history, but this is a book written by a University of Colorado Denver about the history of the zoo, formulated 1885 and that's a wealth of information is probably still in print if you find it and I urge you to get that also. But back to the zoo. The zoo is a gym and I was at a public meeting very extensive time for people to have input back in early March. So there has been so some input in. So I urge your approval of this next important step. Thank you. Thank you. Louis Public asking. Thank you. Good evening, council members. Perhaps you might recall I was here on the 15th of December. It was regarding the zoo's gasification plan. All of you unanimously voted to approve that plan. But you acknowledged that there was a need for greater citizen involvement in the decision making process. Councilman Brooks was applauded for leading the charge on the formation of a neighborhood advisory committee and NSC to work with the zoo and its neighbors on future plans. He even went so far to say that all of the protests over the ugliness of Gate 15 could have been avoided had citizens been better involved in the process and agreed that citizens were left out of the conversation. Councilman Brown. Called the formation of the NRC a win win. The zoo gets the gasification plan and the neighbors will now get a voice in the process. Council person Shepherd said, I heard great comment on the part of Councilman Brooke's commitment I'm sorry on forming that noisy group and went on to say that the zoo and the park are married and have been for over 100 years. I'm not sure if there's any marriage that could survive if one of the partners announces a 20 year plan without serious conversation with the other partner. I could quote more, but my 3 minutes are not enough. Suffice it to say that all council people agreed the need for better citizen input and conversation. I'd add that the zoo's director, Sharon Black, can be seen nodding her approval of greater citizen involvement. You can watch the video. The NRC is forming but has not yet met. I know. Wheels of government move slow, but when it comes to a major 20 year zoo construction plan, these same same wheels seem to gain traction. I would ask you, what is the rush? Six of the 13 council seats are going to be changed in the coming election in just a few weeks. Is the zoo trying to put the plan in place before this lame duck council term is over? Or is the zoo rushing to push this plan before the lauded NSC is put in place? Given the past history of and the overwhelming support for greater citizen involvement. It only seems right that you vote to delay and any decision on far reaching construction plan until a new council is seated and meaningful conversation is had with the NSC. We all love our city and we look forward to things of beauty that can be created. Please, let's not repeat mistakes of the past. Vote to delay a 20 year construction plan is not a small issue and ten days of notice the army knows is hardly enough time to give it the type of conversation that it deserves. If you want citizen to be involved, then I urge you, please delay this vote. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next is Polly Read and as misreads come up, I'm gonna call the next five. Carl Waller, Mary Peoples, Laurie Galbraith, Nate Connelly and Katie Philpot. And the last part of your name was marked off. My apologies. Miss Rich, you can go ahead and begin. Very good evening. My name is Polly Reads. I'm a resident. Of the city and county of Denver. I've lived in Denver for about 40 years. My husband moved here in 1954. He remembers when the zoo was basically a basin, a bear and a peacock down in city park. So we have a long history with the zoo. I'm now a volunteer. I live about ten blocks from City Park, and I'm lucky enough to be able to ride my bike in good weather to do my volunteering there about. I won't tell you how many years ago. I received a degree in wildlife conservation from the from Cornell University. A master's degree. And so you can guess that this is very important to me. It's very honestly issue very close to my heart. And I think that the zoo has a big job ahead of it and is doing it now and has even a bigger job ahead. In wildlife conservation and in particular in. Conservation education. And the zoo has an excellent program already. And I think that the master plan that you're considering tonight. Will. Even further enable. Our zoo to do a. Really excellent job in active conservation, which it does here and abroad and in education. And I think education is so crucial because we're facing the kind of extinction we haven't seen in about 60. Million years if we don't do something. About it. So the master plan will advance both these goals. And if you look at it in detail, I think you'll see. Why the the. Education activities. Will be. Moved out into the zoo where the animals are, which is much more exciting. I have to say. So I'm. Urging you. That to. Approve this. And I would also like to. Say that we. Do have some. Outdated facilities that badly need to be renovated. And I would rather. Not. Wait. Ten or 15 or 20 years to do it. I think we should get going now. So thank you. This is a zoo volunteer perspective. Thank you very much for your time tonight. And I do hope that you will pass the bill. Thank you, Carl Waller. Good evening. Carl Worley I'm a. Long time resident. Denver since 1996 proudly living in District ten twin been in Congress parks and proud to be a zoo volunteer since 2007. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you this evening. The overall. Mission statement of the. Zoo is to secure a better world. For animals through human understanding. And our role in that mission is starts with the experiences our visitors have as they wander the grounds. Some of our facilities are old. They're are obvious examples of old school zoo design, and plus the buildings are in need of replacing anyway just because they're old. And so this new plan will not only. Replace those buildings, it will replace them. With not just a new copy of what it used to be of what's already there. And the new. And the new buildings and the new the new yards and so on will. Give our. Visitors much. Better experiences, much more. Richer opportunities to connect. With. Animals, too, and to learn about them and to inspire them to want to help protect the animals. And there's really. Looking forward to this getting off the ground. And I thank you for your time and your approval this evening. Thank you, Mary Peoples. Thank you so much for this opportunity to talk to you. My name is Mary Peeples and I live in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Denver, and I've been a member of the Denver Zoo for over 20 years and a volunteer for the last two years. The Denver Zoo is a valuable resource not just for Denver, but all of Colorado. And I really appreciate the zoo's forethought to create a plan that's comprehensive and that's going to help them prepare for the coming years. The proposed building plan will allow the zoo to continue to be a world class venue. And it is and a credit to the city and county of Denver, and I request that you approve it. Thank you. Thank you. Laurie Galbraith. My name is Laurie Galbraith. I'm a resident of Hilltop. I have a son in Park Hill and a son who lives downtown. So we're kind of spread out all over Denver. I'm also on the board of trustees of the Denver Zoo, and I'm the vice chair of the Master Plan Committee of the board. I'm here today to strongly encourage the council to approve the building plan of our master plan. On the second reading tonight, having been a part of the creation of this master plan, I want to emphasize that this was a thoughtful approach with a collaborative design bringing together major stakeholders that had varied expertize in the zoo mission as guidelines. When the Denver Zoo with the Denver Zoo being the most popular cultural institution in the state of Colorado, I believe that this new plan will strengthen our ability to better serve our animals, our educational goals, and continue to serve our conservation messaging, which is really important to who we are and what we stand for in the community. I also feel that the zoo has worked hard to both share our plans and welcome feedback from the community through our website, which has been posted since February and our community gathering. The master plan will be important for the future of the Denver Zoo and as a focal cultural institution for the city of Denver and our state of Colorado. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Thank you. Nate Conley. Yeah. I mean, Annette Curry. Sorry, handwriting's bad. I live in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Denver and District ten, and I'm actually the communications. Coordinator for the Denver Regional Council of Governments here. And I bring with me the greetings of everybody on staff and appreciate all your support, as always as the city and. County of Denver. Probably. Do. It's been my happy, unfortunate duty to prepare the program this Wednesday for Dr. Cox 60th anniversary. And I haven't been around for all of. The 60 years, but it's pretty amazing. To look at the different changes that have. Gone on in this region and. Not just in the city of Denver, but but collectively along the front range. There's two themes that really have emerged for me that are very clear is one that we honor and continually strive to improve our cultural institutions as a region. And two, we've never been afraid to invest in ourselves as a region. So if you think from our sports stadiums. To DIA to the justice. Facility here to fast tracts. Today, you know, I would venture to say and this is a bold. Statement that outside of the Denver Broncos. I don't know of any other institution that is. Ubiquitous and and well-loved as the Denver. Zoo is. It has been it is and will continue. To be a safe and inspiring place for generations of Coloradans in the. Future. Recently, I've had the privilege, the past four years of working at. Envision Utah and Salt Lake City, where we're known as a. Public private partnership, that. Is, national leaders in our public participatory processes. And we've consistently produced meaningful public feedback and input for our stakeholders and. Policymakers in Utah. And I want to say that. As I've observed with the. Denver Zoo has done in the way that they have designed their process and engage the public, particularly. In the neighborhoods. I'm confident that they are. Listening and that the opportunity for the neighbors has been there and will continue to be there. I have. Also been happy to. Give back a small part of my time now as a volunteer to the zoo, now that I'm back in town because I love the zoo. And as I've gotten to know Shannon and her team. I'm also confident that their commitment to engaged, authentic public participation and dialog is there. I have no doubt about that. So I would just urge you to continue in the Denver tradition of investing in our region's future by. Voting yes on this. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have Katie Philippot and as she comes up to speed, a master for the next five speakers, which is Michael McGuire, Darrell Watson, Andy Sense, Katherine Coon and Jack Walmsley. You can make your way to the pew and can you and go ahead. You can begin. Thank you. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Katie Philpot, shows Al and I am a Denver native and I have enjoyed going to Denver Zoo regularly for over 50 years. I want to begin this evening by thanking all of you for approving the first reading of the mass of this master plan and approving it. And I, too, am here tonight to encourage you strongly to please do this for our community and pass approval again for the master plan. The city of Denver has been an incredible partner for Denver Zoo for many years, and they have ensured that we have a world class zoo today in City Park. There is a strong history of building really quality exhibits and taking excellent care of animals and being a safe place for people to bring their families. My family is part of the 2 million people who have come this year and enjoy Denver Zoo. We have learned a lot at the zoo. We have embarked on lifelong learning at the zoo. And we care about our animals and environment because of our time that we spent at the zoo. My husband and I have been strong supporters of the zoo because it's expensive to have the type of facility that we are fortunate enough to have in Denver. And we feel it's our responsibility to give back to Denver and make sure that every child in Denver has the opportunity to enjoy Denver Zoo and to learn about the animals and care about the environment. Thank you very much. Thank you. Michael McGuire. Good evening. My name is Michael Maguire, speaking in support of the Denver Zoo Master Plan. I live at 6528 Mar Vista Place in Denver. I am in my 12th year as a Denver Zoo docent and almost 3000 volunteer hours. Why am I proud of the zoo and of being a part of it? One our citizens and our animals are always foremost in our minds. We love the enjoyment that we share with the zoo. Visitors to the Denver Zoo provides animals with a wonderful life through enrichment activities and regular exercise. The animals are cared for by a loving, professional staff, and they are exercised to have many enrichment activities and diets that meet their exact needs. The loving and devoted bonds. That exist between our staff and animals is one key reason why animals such as. Bertha Hippo at age. 59 and Sally, the orangutan at age. 52, live far beyond their normal species. Life spans three. The Denver Zoo is among the foremost leaders in animal conservation efforts. It provides staff and financial support for worldwide conservation research projects. A few on site examples include DTP dedicated to preservation of highly endangered Asian elephants and an endangered bird propagation center. Dedicated to saving many birds clinging to species. Survival for Denver Zoo educates and safely exposes millions of local, national and international visitors to animals, which is enjoyable, informative and innocent. An Essential Species Conservation Element. Five Through the Red Apple Fund, Free Days, Outreach and Other Opportunities, Denver Zoo provides affordable ways for families, school classes, nursing homes and assisted living facilities to learn about our animals . Six We are the only. Zoo. That has won awards for renewable energy, developing a practical model likely to contribute to green energy for zoos, botanic gardens, university campuses and other campus like. Settings in the US and the world. In summary, although we are not among the largest zoos in the country, many visitors, others from other zoos and also zoo regulatory institutions greatly respect Denver Zoo as a visionary, caring and trendsetting zoo that follows the highest standards. Thank you for this opportunity and for helping Denver to be a great place to live. I ask for your yes vote to approve the Denver Zoo Master Plan. Thank you, Darryl Watson. Good evening, Mr. President. Members of City Council. My name is Darryl Watson. I'm the president of the Whittier Neighborhood Association. And I'm very excited to be here tonight to speak in favor of the Zoo Facilities Master Plan and to ask for your support as well for the Zoo Facilities Master Plan. I live at 26, 25 Lafayette, and I've lived there for 19 years. So my family and I have enjoyed many weekends, many weeks within the zoo. And we know that this plan will add to not just the pleasure of neighbors attending the zoo, but also the ability to educate our youth and our children and will also increase just the viability of the the facilities for the animals that that reside at the zoo. I wanted to share two reasons for my support is twofold. First and foremost, we've heard a few statements concerning the outreach and the the robustness of the outreach about tonight's meeting. As a president of Whittier Neighborhood Association, I can assure you that that outreach was robust. I had more than enough time to communicate to my neighbors within the Whittier Neighborhood Association, and they've had more than enough time to reach out to Councilman Brooks and members of council concerning tonight's meeting and their support for tonight's meeting. I'll also add, as a former president of the Parks and Rec Advisory Board, I strongly support a robust outreach process for anything that happens within Parks and Rec. And I know that the zoo leadership through George Pound and Lori Dana Millar's leadership of Parks and Rec, that they did an amazing job reaching out not only to the community and the RINO's, but providing a process that was extremely inclusive. And I would state that their process was best in class. And I'll ask that city council and other committees that work within the zoo or within parks look at the process that George Pound and his staff put together to see how you can have a process that not only includes community meetings, not only includes the Parks and Rec Advisory Board, not only includes outreach by Internet and utilizing options for taking votes on where people feel the zoo plan should go. But they also did individual outreach to community meetings and to folks that they know didn't support this plan. They had a separate meeting for a group that truly has not been supportive of this and was inclusive to the point of including their input within that plan. I also want to add that as a member of the exploratory committee that Councilman Brooks has put together to look at a master plan for City Park dealing with landmark preservation and historic designation. I know that the steps that the zoo took is something that we can utilize as a as a a very clear process to ensure that we're inclusive and that we're getting as much input as possible. I strongly ask City Council to support this facility's masterplan. It's in the best interests of our children, the best interests of the animals in the zoo. And I think this process has been absolutely well put together and the community has been very involved. Thank you very much. Thank you. Andy, since and since you have 6 minutes and I see see 3 minutes to you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for allowing time for us to provide feedback today. I'm a resident of Park Hill. I live a 1621 Claremont Street. I'm a parent of two amazing kids and a very frequent user of both City Park and the zoo. I think we were both places in the last 36 hours Dustin Red and the Zoo on Sunday and stuff. And so so I have endless love for both places and a lot at stake, I feel like in both places. And I'm strongly in favor of moving forward to approve these plans tonight. The zoo has made an ample offer, ample effort to present the plan to me as a resident, I feel like and to my neighbors in a variety of ways. I've personally provided feedback to the zoo by email in. On social media. I've provided opinions. I've voiced my opinions at several of the abundant meetings that the zoo has provided. And in almost every case, I feel that I've had answers to those questions that have been satisfactory. So I strongly feel that the zoo has made every effort to reach out to the community in ways that I think in a lot of cases, quite honestly, some of our rhinos could learn from. And I'd like them to. So my family feels incredibly fortunate to live so close to a world class zoo. And I urge you to approve these plans tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Catherine King. Hi. Kathryn Coon. I live in South Park Hill and within walking distance of both the zoo and city park. I've lived in Denver, specifically Park Hill, for almost 15 years, and the zoo of most of that 15 years has been a large part of my life. I have two kids. We have gone almost every single weekend, although my 11 year old now says it's been too much, which I can't change and I'm unhappy about. But so that we've heard a lot about the outrage. I am a member of CPS fan, and even though I'm a member, I don't agree with anything they do. They don't listen to us as members. They don't seek outreach from members. They seek official comment, and they don't ask their members if it's okay to go forward with that. I feel that they're the zoo's outreach, including a informational meeting of the zoo master plan and a fan monthly meeting where they start their outreach during a PowerPoint presentation, which you've heard about, which included a map of the 32 buildings to be replaced, the ones to stay, and the ones that are on historic registry is am one ample enough for just that R.A. If not all of the numerous emails I've received from the zoo, the social media, also all the other information on the web from the zoo master plan that they published on their own website. It I find that people talking about outrage as not enough is absolutely ridiculous and saying that they didn't have 30 days notice is a flat out lie. Yes, it was brought to you recently, but it wasn't brought to me. In fact, the fan meeting occurred on February 2nd. If that was less than 30 days ago, I don't know how to do math. So also, as a mother, I'd like to get on to more positive stuff here. As a mother, I feel it's vitally important to increase the zoo's improvements and maintenance to allow them to compete nationally and worldwide with other zoos. I grew up in Los Angeles. Y'all have heard about the L.A. Zoo. It's fantastic. It's gigantic. I would like the Denver Zoo to be on that scale of competition in the zoos, in the zoo realm. The only way to do this is to do improvements. Also, the only way to increase education is by improvements over the years. If there are no improvements, nobody will come to it. It will also mean a decrease in tourism and a decrease in dollars for the city. And we all want to improve our city. And this is the major reasons why I'm standing before you and telling you to please approve this. And there is no need for a postponement. Thank you. Thank you, Jack Wamsley. And as Jack comes up to speak, I will call the last four speakers David Airman, Deborah Collier, Angie Panes and Brad Parks. You four can make your way up to the front pew. And Mr. Wamsley, you can go ahead and begin. Good evening, Castle. Mr. President, I. I had a lot more that. I wanted to say, but I would be redundant. At this point. I think it's I had a lot of notes. So all I wanted to say at this time is, you know, I brought this book. It's the Centennial History of Denver Zoo. And if you read this book, it would tell you we've been here many times. This isn't the first time. And all the times that. We faced city government. It was always. Approved and the it was carried on to the millions of people that come and visit it every year. And I mean millions with a name because we have people from all over the world. I've been a volunteer since. 2012 and in the things that I do as a volunteer. I've met people from. Europe and all over. And so I urge the Council to make a decision in favor of one seven to. Thank you, David. Airman. Good evening, Mr. President. Thank you very much. And members of council. I'm a Denver Zoo donor and a Denver Zoo volunteer. And I'm here to urge your passage of Council Bill 172 tonight. During the last few weeks, I've been making calls to thank members, new members of the zoo. And of course, whenever someone gets a call from an organization, they think, oh, they're going to ask me for money. But this time I'm actually just thanking them and I'm getting some great feedback. We have members obviously most of them are in Colorado, but I talked with a woman who is from San Diego's a member. She loves her San Diego Zoo. But her second favorite zoo is the Denver Zoo. So it's been exciting just to hear the kind of support, the deep support that we have from the community and from members around the country. That is fairly unusual, I think. Finally, my favorite part of the zoo was the primate area. I see so much of us in the orangutans and the gorillas. I see physical characteristics. I see behavioral characteristics that are so similar. And it is such a joy to be to be on the other side of the glass and watch them and watch how we watch their characteristics that are so much like us. And to watch the kids, the kids just go crazy when they see young Heskey, who's a five year old orangutan, go swinging around and tap her mother on the head. And then her mother grabs the rope and prevents her kid from flying off into space. And the adults love it. They they just really love it. So, again, thank you very much. I urge your support and a final vote on Council Bill 172. Thank you. Thank you, Deborah Koller. Good evening, Council President. Herndon and all other. City council. Members. My name is Debbie Kaylor. I live in the Winston Downs area of Denver. And I'm here as a. Passionate supporter of the Denver Zoo. But specifically, I'm speaking frankly from my perspective as a passionate Denver public school volunteer. And here I want to zero in on the extraordinary. Work I have seen done by the Denver Zoo. By their docents and extraordinarily education programs. And funding efforts that go. On under. Their Red Apple fund, specifically for the many children in Denver Public School whose families rely on public. Assistance. I can tell you personally that the teachers in Denver Place Bridge Academy, and that's the school that I'm very familiar with these last years. Regard with with the highest esteem. The Denver Zoo. I know that goes on elsewhere among all public school teachers in Denver shows in sorry, in the public schools. I want to tell you that when I've. Accompanied children who are from in this case, Denver Place Bridge Academy, who grew up in refugee camps and are immigrants, and that is 99. Well, I should say probably about 70%. That's my guess of what. Denver Place Bridge Academy is. The trip. To the zoo is the milestone. Event of the year. And I know that's true for other economically challenged children elsewhere in Denver public schools. And I have watched with amazement, amazement as Denver public schools, as the Denver Zoo's staff and trained docents prepare special programs for the children and really financially put themselves out. The zoo does, and emotionally to. Make the whole experience for the public school teachers. And the children so extraordinarily rewarding. So in this case, I just want to emphasize that from a child's perspective, one who, frankly, without the Red Apple Fund and the support that city council provides, you know, in in giving funding or approving funding for the zoo. This is these are extraordinary lifetime experiences that I'll never forget. Thank you very much. Thank you. Andrew Payne's. Good evening, Mr. President. In the Council. Fellow council members, my name is Angie Panos. I am a 32 year resident of Congress Park and proud and lucky to be in that neighborhood. I have I have been involved myself at the zoo for 23 years, first as a volunteer. And I now have the honor of representing and managing the adult volunteer program. And my hat tonight is on behalf of those wonderful volunteers. I'm honored that the first time I should stand up and speak at a city council meeting, which this is my first time that I get to speak on behalf of the volunteers that are the life and heart and blood of the of our organization. One of our former speakers just told me that she feels the volunteers are the mortar that hold the bricks up at our zoo. And I love that analogy. And I will take that back to the volunteers later tonight. However, I just want to share a letter. There are over 560 adult volunteers. They are not all here, fortunately for you or we would be here all night. There are a number of them in the room tonight, some as recently as only four months with us, some as long as 20 years with us. We just recently had a few who reached 40 years. So we have a thriving group and these are their words. And I have 93 signatures added to this letter, which is about 20% of our group. Dear City Council. The Denver Zoo is a premier organization in our community. We, the Denver Zoo adult volunteers who have signed below, wish to thank you for approving the building plan at the first reading on April 6th. We would also like to encourage the Council to approve the building plan at the second reading tonight, April 20th, in support of the zoo's approved master plan. We feel that the zoo community way too communicated well with stakeholders and led meaningful meetings and outreach efforts to receive input from our community. We know that the 500 plus comments received on the website dedicated to outreach about the master plan were used to modify the plan based on community comments. Many of us attended these meetings and provided feedback in this process. We support the Denver Zoo's master plan and asked the city council to approve the proposed building plan. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Last speaker, Brad Parks. Good evening. My name's Brad Parks. I live in the 2600 block of Bel-Air. Mr. Councilman Brooks is part of our our team there. I'm here tonight as a Park Hill resident since 1998 and happy to hear other Park Hill neighbors here in support of the zoo. So one of the reasons we are living there is the amenities of City Park. The museum, the zoo offers to our family. I've raised two sons in the neighborhood and have taken advantage of those resources many, many times. We're committed to the neighborhood. My wife is a DPS teacher teaching at Park Hill for a period of time and myself even serving on the PTA and the Collaborative School Committee. And I share this with you tonight because I'm also a Denver Zoo employee. And part of the reason you're hearing me here tonight is I'm passionate about our neighborhood. And part of the thing that makes it unique, it makes it amazing. And something I hear from the majority of my neighbors is what a great asset the zoo is and the museum to our neighborhood. We love the ability to have a vibrant regional park that's used by many, but especially we consider as our park. And the zoo's evolution in this new plan is a key way to help move forward. City Park in the city of Denver. So why do I share both of these? Well, part of it is I've had a front row seat to the development of this plan. I'm honored to have been part of the co leadership of an internal staff team that's worked on this plan to gather feedback, which we've heard a lot about tonight. And I'll assure you there's fingerprints on this plan from all aspects of our community, from internal audiences like our trustees, our teen volunteers have contributed our adult volunteers that were well-represented tonight, as well as members of our zoo membership and other zoo visitors. Part of the work that my team in our Education and Volunteer Services Department does is research with our zoo visitors. And so after Toyota Elephant Passage was opened and our guests were experiencing that amazing new exhibit, we were able to gather feedback from them on the experience and use that to help us then shape the new plan . And as this plan was in development, we specifically ask zoo users, our clientele, who some of which I'm happy to hear from tonight about what they wanted to see in the plan. And so that's what also helped shape this feedback and helped shape things that are important to me as the director of guest engagement, such as the visitor hubs, where guests in these buildings you're discussing tonight will have the opportunity to get in and out of the summer heat to take a rest, or in the winter when our crowds are a little lower, have a building to get in out of the cold as well, as you heard this evening, have the opportunity to increase our education and outreach to the community. The science learning that can go on at the zoo is an amazing resource to the city of Denver. And I encourage you through this building plan tonight to wholeheartedly pass it. Thank you so much. Thank you. That concludes our speakers is now time for questions from members of the Council. Councilwoman Robb. Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to start with a I have three questions just to warn you, and I'd like to stop. Is Mr. Makowsky. Yes. Still here? Yes. Could you come to the microphone? Of course, I remember the testimony from December and what I wanted and what I thought I remembered was that you are part of the city park friends and neighbors. Is that. Right? That is correct. I'm the president. Okay. So my question for you is, has your organization, since you met and first learned of this in early February, have you taken a position on the building plan? Really, what this ordinance is about is three buildings, two that have the parking and a footprint. Bigger, bigger than 3000 square feet. One that's a tree house that's higher than 35 feet. The zoo came to one of our meetings at that time and they gave us a presentation. The thrust of the presentation was the design features that they were going to do to improve the ugly facade of gate 15. That everybody here. Acknowledged was somewhat in need. Of help. They briefly touched upon a few items that they're thinking about doing something in the future, and there was nothing in the form of a presentation about a master plan that was going to take effect and going to impact the park, the neighborhood, the zoo, the city for 20 years. Nothing like that was ever discussed. And they could talk all they want about about it. I've actually heard somebody say that it wasn't true, but they weren't at that meeting. So that's my state. Okay. So so did they tell you they were having a meeting the next night? And also at the end of I think it was February? Yes, it was in February. And I actually I spoke with Mr. Pond after the meeting, and he basically said that the other meetings were going to be a repetition of more or less what they did. They had a very nice slick show. Everybody got a clicker. Do you like Ivy or do you like trees? Do you like to be tall? Do you want. So you went to that meeting? I went to that meeting, but there was no point to attend every single one of the same. So. So then my question is, you've had a couple months. Has your neighborhood taken a position? And if not, why wouldn't you have. We found out about the plan in the newspaper on Monday before our meeting on Tuesday was the first that we heard that a plan was being presented to you for consideration on a 20 year plan. You were unaware of the council committee meeting. The newspaper was on Monday and our meeting was on Tuesday. That was the first that we heard of it from the paper. We did not hear we did not hear from the zoo. Thank you. So my next question, Mr. President, is for Lori Stratton, the city attorney. And any other questions of me. Will call you up if someone has a question. Thank you, sir. Thank you. And Laurie, I was actually the sponsor or the legislator behind the Park Building Plan, which is I said to Mr. POCHOWSKI was really about buildings over a certain size. And this is only the second time we've had a hearing on one of these. I'm going to ask you to explain the plan and any notification requirements rather than my trying to do it. Sure. Sure. So while I won't explain the plan, I'll let folks talk. About the substance. But I will explain the notification requirements. The Denver Revised Municipal Code requires that the Parks Department provide notice as required in a different, separate section of our code and in Chapter 12 of our code and that section of our code, parks was required to give notice within ten. Working days of their receipt of the plan from the zoo. And that notice was was not provided until last week. So everybody acknowledges that. However, that section of the code that requires that notice provides and I'll just read it that the failure of an organization. So parks for whatever reason or sorry the failure of an organization for whatever reason to receive a notification required here under shall not invalidate any action taken by the city. So it is it is a required notice, but it's it's more in the nature of a. Courtesy type notice because you can proceed to take action. I guess I was always under the impression that that out clause was a failure of someone to receive it. If it got lost in the mail, if it got lost in their email. Not an out clause for not notifying. But I see how you can read it both ways. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. And I think that for whatever reason, is is rather strong language. So we heard testimony tonight that we should require more than ten days of notice. But that's not really the way this is structured. It's you get notice right after you get the plan. And that's probably going to be 30 days by the time it gets to council committee. I think. Dennis Miller said that Parks actually. Received the plan from the zoo on March ten. That's what I jotted down in my notes. But she can confirm. So, you know, my read of the ordinance would have then required that notice be provided. Ten days of parks receipt, working days off of parks receipt of that on March 10th. So late March is really the timing of what the anticipated notice should have been provided. So it wasn't provided to last week. But there is, I think, as you referred to it, that that out clause. Folks would have had about a month. Yeah, I think that's fair. Yeah. Okay. And one one final if I could ask Lori Danna Miller to come to the podium. Thank you, Lord. Laurie as a sponsor of the Park Building Plan. And that's when we added the notice to the neighborhoods, to the registered neighborhood ordinance. I have to ask you, how could this happen? So I'm not making any excuses for our failure to notify. I will tell you what did happen. A couple of things. Firstly, we don't traditionally do neighborhood notifications as a result of R.A. or as a result of zoning code, you know, mandates. We typically don't do that. But in this case, we did have that task on our list of things to do to complete the actual adoption of the building plan. And I will tell you straight out, our government affairs person went on maternity leave and we forgot to double check whether that was completed or not when we recognized that that was not completed on April 8th. We convened, we talked and we said, okay, well, what we need to do is let council know that we did not provide the notification, notify the neighbors. That happened on April 10th. We asked for a delay for for the public hearing to be delayed till April 20th tonight. We take full responsibility for not notifying per the ten day notice that's required in the code. I would say again that the language that is in that notification does not specify how much time is required when the notification is made between that notification and the public hearing. Could been ten days. It could been 30 days. Any of those, I think, would have met the intent because it's not specified in the code what that duration should be. Well, I beg to differ with you, because if you notify when you receive the plan, just the process, and maybe it doesn't have to go to Parab, but by the time it would have gotten here, it would have been at least three weeks as opposed to ten days. But I have to say that that was notification that we received the plan, not notification of when the public hearing was going to be, because it did go to city council committee and to probe and then to a public hearing. I just have to, you know, let you know that. Okay. So. So, Lori, can I ask you one other thing then? So. So we. Lori Strand. Oh. Sorry. Oh, yeah. So basically, all they have to say is we got we got notice of the plan being filed and not even mention the ordinance and what else is required. See, I left I left the code language back there. It does say that if they do know the date of the. Public hearing, that it should be provided in there. So. Okay. All. Thank you. At the end of the day. Thank you, Councilwoman Robb. Councilman Brooks. Lord Denning, Miller, stay up here. So I just have a question about the prior process because I was I attended the meetings but I didn't attend the C fan mean City Park friends and neighbors meeting prior to the public meeting. So I was a part of that process, but I wasn't a part of the prior process. Can you talk about that a little bit and can you talk about I know Arnold's notified. Were they do they know of those meetings? Were there anyone speaking in opposition in those meetings at all? So the prop meeting took place on March 12th. And we have to remember that there's two different documents were referencing. Right. Our cooperative agreement with the zoo basically says that there has to be outreach about the master plan. And the manager, the executive director of Parks and Recreation approves the master plan. So at Proud, the majority of that effort was placed on the master plan because I was asking for input from Parab to give me, you know, basis for decision on adoption of the master plan. And then we have this other element, which is the building plan, which requires city council approval. And so at that meeting, there was a schedule that was outlining, you know, what the next steps were that we were after we got adoption because we chose to go through them kind of iteratively that we would have the adoption of the master plan and then take that element out of the master plan, which was the building plan, send it to council committee and then public hearing for adoption. So that was identified at the meeting. I don't know that there were any speakers in opposition or in favor of the building plan or the master plan actually at the meeting. But the agenda for Parab and actually if you go on our website right now, the building plan is on the website very clearly stated the zoo building master plan on there now. And it was prior to the meeting. Okay. And you know what? I think while you're talking and explaining that, I answer my own question because I believe the zoo and Andrew or Shannon give you an opportunity to come up and answer this question at every meeting. The zoo outlined the process. The zoo outlined exactly what meeting would be next, when they would go to grab, when they would go to committee, when they would go to the first reading, when they would go to second reading. And so although we, as Parks and Rec did not follow through with the notification, every neighbor who attended those meetings, 84 neighbors attended those meetings. By the way, the three meetings knew exactly the timeline. Am I right on the entrance when you got to come up to Mr. President and. Andrew Roe and government affairs manager for Denver Zoo. Thank you, Councilman Brooks, for having me up here. Schedules of upcoming events were discussed and also put in a PowerPoint at every slide. I think something that we need at every presentation. I think what we need to remember, though, is that many of the first presentations we didn't know specific dates on when these would occur. We knew when the public process meetings would occur, when the online module would be released, and when potentially the depraved meeting would be. We didn't have specific dates, I believe, until the meeting on the 17th for committee meetings and building plan adoption after that. Again, we did discuss both the master plan process and the Building Plan Council process. At the beginning of each meeting, I believe you made opening remarks on the fourth about where this process goes after the adoption . So I wanted to make one note to Lori Dana Miller's comments about D prep. We did have one community member spoke speak in support of the master plan at that prep meeting. Okay, great. Okay. I have one more question, Mr. President. For for Laura Anna miller. Laura, is this is this hour our last kind of bite at the apple? I got a couple of emails today just asking, you know, for us as a community, are we just saying, okay, go ahead, go, go do it. You go do what you do. But what what is our accountability with the zoo now, if we approve this this massive plan? Well, I mean, technically, the ordinance lays out council's approval authority, which is the actual building plan of those specific buildings that are 3000 square feet or 33 buildings. Three buildings. Right. And so legally, that probably is your legal last bite at the apple. If this is you know, this is something that we fully believe is going to be a 20 year process. And any time there's any major building that happens at the zoo, it goes first through our planning department. It goes through neighborhood outreach. It will go through, you know, specific departments for review because it's a building that requires building permits. But the code specifies what council, you know, has the authority to approve or not approve. And in this in this instance, it's basically the buildings that are above 3000 square feet and 35 square or 35 feet. But I will tell you that, you know, there's there's definite desire on the part of the zoo and our department to keep the neighborhood informed. You, I know, have started the effort to create that committee that is going to work between the neighbors and the zoo and the museum. I know you've sent emails out to try to get, you know, folks to volunteer to be on that group. So I would see that as the Forum for Future Development at the Zoo as review through the neighborhood process. Yeah, and I'll address that in a sec because I got called out on that. Let me ask last question, Andrew. Tell me, did you do you do Facebook? Did you do next door? Did you get the word out that absolutely. We utilized all the options available to us. So in addition to specific direct invites sent to the 14 registered neighborhood organizations surrounding the zoo, fan being one of those that received direct invitations via email, we also use social media. We used our website, we use Twitter, we use Facebook. We also posted on next door and we were also our master plan process and community meetings were also highlighted on the front page of greater or greater Park Hill Community News in the March edition. It was a an article authored by Greg Davis of City Park Alliance urging people to participate in the process. And he specifically shared the Web address to the online module. So we really appreciated his help with that. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Brooks. Councilman, can each. Thank you, Mr. President. I have a few questions, and probably best to start with the zoo so you guys can decide who to send up. But I want to kind of clarify some things. So you said that I had asked you this question right before the meeting, and I apologize. I've been asking a lot of late questions because we didn't have controversy around this until very recently. And I don't serve on committees. So this has been a very recent due diligence on my part. But you stated that every meeting you talked about the building plan showed the timing. So in the February 3rd meeting, which was the meeting that we've heard about from one of the presidents of one of the Iron O's, was there a slide that mentioned the building plan? So I thought you'd told me before the meeting that there was not. And then one of the speakers just said that you did show that at every meeting. So I want to just clarify, just when you can come up in answer whoever whoever needs to answer, I just want to clarify. Was no thank you. We looked at that there wasn't a specific slide with with that language and those dates on it. At every meeting, though, that topic was discussed and I think one of the testimony that you heard tonight was referencing one of the drawings in the plan that was looking at the buildings on our campus, some of which are historic, etc.. And and that provided a context in which for us to talk about the this dual approval process. So I do believe we we at least referenced that, that we were going through a process. And the direct answer to your question, though, is, is was there a slide with with that with that specific language? No, there. Wasn't. Okay. So it's just to be very clear then it was discussed at every meeting, but information on it wasn't visually or written presented. It necessarily was not and is. Not in every meeting. And then let's can we talk a little bit about the and this may be David, but the notices that you sent so email lists so was City Park friends and neighbors were the other Arnaud's did they get every notice for every meeting or was it like, you know, some groups got noticed, I mean, just trying to get a clear sense. So so there was one meeting that was at their membership meeting. But were there were they on a general distribution list? Absolutely. Thank you for the question. Councilwoman Kinch, we are not in the business of selectively sharing information or selectively inviting groups of 14 registered neighborhood organizations received all the same correspondence. I can produce emails evidencing all those chains and when they were sent out and who they were sent to specifically, all the emails were sourced via the city's website, where the registered neighborhood organizations organizations registered their email address and how we can contact them directly. Got it. So. So without getting into proving it all up, can you just give me an estimate of how many emails probably went out the list that sorry. Just to the list of the. List on the our notes. On invites. For. Specific invites for at least four inviting them to all three of the meetings. Keep Fan, the one hosted at the zoo and the one hosted at the meeting, and also an invitation to participate in the online module. And then a couple reminders after that. At the last meeting we hosted a bogie's. We actually provided child care at that meeting. So we sent out a reminder because we wanted to make sure that everybody had that opportunity if they had kids right after work. Great. Thank you. So another question. So this kind of slow up here, but I heard of I apologize to speakers that I was talking to the staff a little bit during the public hearing, but we are not approving the master plan tonight, so it's not in my packet as a councilmember, but obviously it's being discussed by everybody , which is a little bit confusing I think probably for the public, and it certainly was for me as a council person who doesn't serve on this committee. And so I did ask the staff to find me a copy of the master plan. I don't see the building plan as part of that. So two questions. One, why I, at least in my click quick visual, I don't see the same building plan that we're approving tonight. That that's correct. The exact building plan that you have tonight is referenced in the ordinance is not part of our master plan document. However, all of the buildings that are referenced in the building plan tonight are represented in the aloft illustrative plan, which is the which is the plan view of the master plan in that document. Further, furthermore, separated in the document is the existing conditions of the zoo and the future conditions of the zoo. Your building plan actually superimposes those two things into one building plan. It's really in some ways a confusing document. It's not something that we would illustrate, you know, put in an illustrative plan inside of our master plan. So I guess this is the punchline question. So I hear you that there are two different documents, but nothing in here that I. Sea has the heights and the square footage the same way the building plan was. So let me ask this question. So if I'm a member of the public who went to your website, is there anywhere that I would have seen the map that we're looking at for approval tonight? Well, I'm sorry. So the building plan has specific buildings labeled by size and by height. You know, just the three buildings in question. Right. But it has all of them by height and size. Is there anywhere the public would have firemen? They wouldn't have found that map in this master plan, which is the main thing that you were sharing with people. Would they have and I just tried to get access to the website so I could check myself. But would they have seen that same map anywhere on the website? On the website? No. But it was published for for the Infrastructure and Cultural Committee. And that's the that's the first time specifically it was published as as required by by this ordinance. I will state that building scope dimensions are are in the plan. Not all not always height again. That wasn't we only have one structure that's that's over 35 feet. But if you look at some of the exhibit projects inside of the plan, it does have square footage is there broken down so it's not a it's not you know, you have to do some math to understand the piece. Okay. Thanks. That's it, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you. Microphone as well. Is that better? You bet. All right. So I would like to ask first, Laurie Dana miller, if you could outline the steps for public comment that would be involved for any of the buildings that would be over 35 feet or 3000 feet for community input. Can you walk through? What? That. Process looks like. So let me just repeat your question. What type of input was taken on the building plan in a specific. That's not my question. Okay. My question is, if there if a building on the site is going to exceed the 3000 feet, I understand we tonight here are approving the building plan that identifies and you know, we've got the map here showing where those are. But if there is any building that will exceed the 3000 feet or the square feet or the 35 foot in height. What is the process for additional public input? In that approval process. So we we actually don't have a requirement per code for any public outreach. But I would say that because of the visibility that's happened around this building plan, any time there is movement on part of the zoo to undertake that construction process of that zoo, that we would go through a robust outreach plan, most likely what would happen would there would be some type of a community meeting or there would be notification of the rhinos, hopefully through the organization that Councilmember Brooks is starting, which is kind of the ongoing sounding board between the neighbors and and the zoo. And the museum, I would assume, would bring something to grab. But I will also say that that's strictly advisory. What the purpose of tonight is for council to approve those buildings, which is what was required in the zoning code. But this would be something that we would do as part of public outreach, you know, as we would do other types of public outreach for any major, you know, construction or changes in any parks. We have a communications policy that was adopted about a year and a half ago, and it identifies different levels of outreach based on what the impacts of those actions are. And this one, I would say, would be probably the highest level of output outreach, which would mean going to the rhinos, letting them know that this was starting and probably a presentation to grab. My next question is for Shannon. BLOCK Shannon, if you could come forward. You identified that there is at least one phase or one one project that is already funded. So can you talk a little bit more about that and then what your expectation is to involve more community input into that particular project? So that's my first question. And then the second is, what is the full build out the time frame, if you will, of the master plan that that we have a copy of here tonight and that has been presented to the community. Great questions. So the the first project being a new home for tigers, the reason that is the first project is because of the public input that we've received. The public in Colorado wants a new home for tigers. So it is it was the top of my priority list when I joined the zoo. But it's been a conversation the zoo has been having with the community for some time. As you know, sort of the the funding is always a question that comes up. And luckily this project is funded. And in this building plan in front of you tonight, we hope to great break ground on it as our first project and that's dictated by the public. And it's also the right thing to do in terms of animal care. And so that's how we arrived at that first project. And does that building exceed the 3000 square foot or the 35 foot high? So I'm not I'm not sure if it's in front of you. There's a picture of what it looks like to be a person in City Park. So if you're standing in the park and you're surrounded by some trees, you'll see if you have this image where our fenceline is. And then the height of the tiger barn, which is, you know, you really can't see it. So we're not talking about a skyscraper. We're talking about a little tiger barn where the tiger, when it gets cold, can go hang out. But what we've done and considered in the process is what the view from the park would be. And you know that the actual image probably speaks louder than than words. In terms of your second question, this really is a 15 to 20 year on plan, which is not uncommon for a zoo. You know, I always get the question, well, what's what's after tigers? And then what is next? And you'll see there's a couple of phase projects in there from Africa to coastal the peaks to prairies. And I you know, I'm not going to go through all the details, but after Tigers, the next discussion will be a conversation with public input, with input from the trustees of Denver Zoo, with input from our city partners in determining the next project. But like I said, the first project will be Tigers. So I was looking at the map trying to identify what you were describing. Yeah, I didn't hear you say. And it may have been distracted as I was looking at this if either if that next project on the Tigers will exceed the 3000 square feet or the 35 feet. 3200 square feet, 14 feet tall. Okay. And. In looking at what the next processes for public input is, are you looking at any additional public input? I heard Laurie outline what Parks and Rec vision is for that. So help me understand if there are additional public comments that you'll be looking for on that particular project as you move forward. You know, I think that particular project, we've already received overwhelming feedback of what that should look like. And the public's desire to have a new home for tigers were always receiving more comments and feedback. Honestly, if you look at our Facebook or Twitter, it's usually like, please start the new home for Tigers now, and that's the most common feedback we receive. But in terms of the public process that we already went through with with Tigers, I think the feedback we're receiving is getting done. So so I did hear that included users of the park, which does include people from the neighborhood and folks internal to the zoo. I wasn't sure if that included discussion on that particular project. In the public meetings you were having with the adjacent neighborhoods? I think that was a broader meeting about the 20 year vision for the zoo and then divided into, you know, the projects that are outlined in front of you. So it was a much broader, bigger conversation. But what we tried to do online and through one on one conversations and public meetings in every single way we could possibly imagine is to get more detailed feedback in certain areas. And then, as you guys know, you get a lot of feedback, right? We have 2 million people come visit the zoo a year. So then it becomes a question of how do you distill that information to make it useful and valuable? Because what we want to do is tell the community, we heard you, we're responding to you, because that creates the trust that's important as we move forward. And so we can go through more the details of you want, if you want of the feedback we got and the priorities that we found. But the number one priority was animal care. And the biggest animal care issue and that that we're looking to enhance is a new home for tigers. And I think that's a vital part of what you do in some of the calls and the communication that I've received. The I think what we're hearing is the concern that as additional buildings will be built on site, that may exceed. The guidelines that we're being asked to approve here tonight, that there is that opportunity for the community to weigh in. And I heard Lori say it's advisory only. But my hope and expectation is that the voice of the neighborhood and the adjacent residents will be factored in, along with all the other input that you get from many other folks who are avid users of the park to just ensure that that voice is being incorporated into the process as any of these projects over the next 20 years would move forward one at a time, knowing that there's not enough funding to go build them all out at once. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you, Councilwoman Ortega. Councilman Brooks, your backup? Yeah. I just wanted to I think we've heard from a president who kind of felt conflicted with the process, struggled with the process and so on, to get a chance for another president in my and my district as well. Come on, Darrell from Whittier. And so we're hearing that, you know, folks weren't alerted of the process, didn't understand about the process. Obviously, there were some there's a snafu within Parks and Rec. I just want to hear a little bit about the feedback that you all in Whittier have had with this process and also what was presented online and things like that. Councilman Brooks, thanks for asking that question. And I wanted to speak to to all of city council on this. There are quite a few registered neighborhood organizations that surround City Park. Whittier is one. I can tell you for all of those registered neighborhood organizations, including City Park Fan, the communication at their February meeting with the zoo was not their only communication about this process. They're members of City Park Fan that are part of our Facebook site that also are very much involved in the Whittier neighborhood. And we received several communications about this process. The neighbors that we represent, and that's from 23rd to Martin Luther King Downing into York. We don't feel we do not feel surprised by this process, nor do we feel that this process was not as robust as it could be. Would it have been nice to have 30 days notice? Yes. But living in a neighborhood and being involved with City Park and being involved with the zoo for all these years, this discussion did not just begin ten days ago. This has been a discussion the zoo has had with not just the Whittier Neighborhood Association, but what City Park West would call with South City Park. And a lot of the larger RINO's that you may not be hearing from as much as a much smaller I.R.A., that's maybe a lot more boisterous. But we have been very involved in this process for a very long time. So I can share with you it was on Facebook. We received emails. We communicated through all of the Arnaud's. There was a communication out to the District eight presidents about this. There was information on all of our sites about this meeting tonight, the extension, and as well as what the masterplan says for the zoo. So I feel as a president of the neighborhood and the feedback I'm receiving from the folks who live in Whittier, that there was more than enough information about this for them to be here tonight, as well as to be able to provide feedback to you, Councilman Brooks, and to the other city council members. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Brooks, Councilwoman Rob Darrell. Mr. Watson. As long as we're in the process. Did your did your organization. I may have missed it. In your testimony, you saw us trying to find the building plant and stuff up here. Did you take a vote and take a formal position? And when was that? We are we took a vote on the master plan. And our understanding was this was a two part process. There was going to be the process that comes through City Council on the Facilities Plan piece, which is what's happening tonight. And then the total masterplan process was going to follow. We took a vote prior to the Parks and Rec Advisory Board meeting because I spoke. I was the one person that spoke in favor of the plan and it was at the Parks and Rec Advisory Board. So we our vote was prior to and I can remember the Parks and Rec Advisory Board meeting was. As it was before the March meeting at Parks and Rec Advisory Board. So yes, I registered liberalization, voted in favor prior to that. And the that was that was to go. Obviously you testified at prev if you were testifying here. Yes. Under the neighborhood or is yes. Zation ordinance a would want to know if it was general a general meeting or your board or and what the vote was in the day prior. I don't think has that same process correct. It was the board and it was unanimous and our board meeting, it's the second Tuesday of March. So yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. President? Yes, Councilman Robb. If there are no more questions from council before you closed the public hearing. I would like to put forward a motion to continue the public hearing. I see no one else in the queue. So if you want to do that, go right ahead. Okay. I'm going to put the motion on the floor and then I'm going to speak to it. So the motion is I move that the public hearing be continued and final consideration of Council Bill 170 to be postponed to Monday, May 18th, 2015. Second. All right. And I will add I know it's in your notes, Mr. President, before I speak to the motion for. No. All right, there. We're good. All right. Motion has been moved and taken to go right ahead, Counselor. I'm sorry. Your notes tell us that people who have spoken here tonight will not be able to speak again. It's one public hearing. If you've had your time, you've had your time. We heard you tonight. So this is simply a continuation of the public hearing to make May 18th. And I'd like to speak to why I'm doing this. I'm not doing this with great joy. I actually wrote a letter to the Infrastructure and Culture Committee because I was out of town supporting this plan because I knew the extensive process that Parks had gone through. I knew they they met with me. I told them, as I said in the letter, this meets the spirit of the Park Building Plan Ordinance that I brought forward. And we've heard tonight great kudos for everything the zoo is doing. And yet, at the same time, I hold neighborhoods to a high standard of doing good process and good outreach and going through questions at public hearings. And sometimes, frankly, I'm not happy with a neighborhood process that has occurred. So I'm not happy when we are asked to. Have a public hearing where we didn't even follow our own process. So it's really hard for me to do this. And I suspect we'll have a little lively debate on this, because I agree that the spirit of the ordinance is there. But between the fact that council didn't publish the public hearing the first night said had been to committee cons consent on our agenda and the fact that we didn't give notice. I can't really be comfortable telling neighborhoods. Oh well, we just goofed. But you know, we heard from you and everything is fine. But at the same time that I say that anybody who testifies on behalf of a neighborhood at on May 18th, if this motion were to pass, I would expect to be very true to the registered neighborhood organization informing us how you made the decision, where you got the information, how your citizens were informed and when the vote was and what the vote was. And I think sometimes we've been a little lax on that. But I just you know, one of the things our citizens always talk to us about is process and transparency. And we don't follow our own ordinances. As the person who sponsored that ordinance, I can't close a hearing tonight and say, okay, I can, I can do it. I can vote. Thank you, Councilman Robb. And just reminder, council members now we're discussing and commenting on the motion to continue. Councilman Brooks. Yeah, thank you, Mr. President. You know, I struggle with this. I struggle with this because this is a this is an agency error. When the independent agency, the zoo, actually went over and beyond what their call of duty was. Their process was pretty much flawless. You know, if I'm looking at everything, I would want, you know, everything up on the map, which can which is going to be councilwoman. Each is going to speak to our I would like all everything online, you know, the whole time, if I if I could have it perfectly. But it was nearly flawless. The outreach was nearly flawless to the point I had neighborhood presidents and folks in my community saying, what's the what's the big deal? Why are you continuing to send this information out? And so so we delay for 30 days for what? What, what, what what are we trying to accomplish in delaying? Are we trying to accomplish more neighborhoods like Whittier, who already said that they they knew what the process was. They showed up to grab. They voted in favor, the board voted in favor. And so they did it. We did not see that from City Park friends and neighbor, which I'm shocked by, because they were the ones that I we all talked to Parks and Rec. We talked with the zoo and said, you probably should go to them first. You should have your meeting with them first, because we want to make sure that they're the ones who are informed and they know what's going on, but yet they did not hold a position. So I got, you know, I, I struggle with that. So because the city, which we should say, hey, that never should happen again, it's a bad process. Messed up. We are leaving an independent agency liable. I have received some letters of opposition and last night I received a ton of letters of Please, I can't make it. I have kids. I can't make it to this event, but please let this thing go forward. We have been to the meetings. We've been engaged. The zoo has been engaged. And so, you know, I don't think that I can be as the district representative, I don't think I can be in support of the continuation. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Brooks. Councilwoman Canete. Thank you, Mr. President. And my colleague, Councilman Brooks correctly anticipated I would have to disagree that I think the zoo's process was flawless. I think you ran an outstanding process about the master plan. The website doesn't make mention of the building plan. The map for the building plan is not in the website. It's not in this document. And so I, I do not believe that those two things were equally explained in the materials available to the public. I, too, sent out the notice January, February about the master plan twice, you know, asked people to give input. So I do. This is where both are true. You did run an outstanding process on the master plan. Unfortunately, what's before us tonight is not the master plan. It's the building plan. And there's not a place. The website where people could find that. And there's not a place in this plan that I didn't have a copy of. You know, where where that's included. And so and I think both are true. You know, I think four emails at least went out to the Arnaud's and, you know, it was described to them that this, you know, there was a building plan involved in this and some Arnaud's got that. And we're at the later meetings where there were slides on it, but some were at a meeting where it was just mentioned and it didn't stick. And so. Ty goes to process. Right. If we have a Ty situation where some people feel like, you know, they understood it and some people didn't, and here's the deal. We didn't meet the ordinance language. And so, you know, we can agree to disagree about whether we gave ourselves an out somewhere else in the ordinance. But Ty has to go to process. If if we don't delay this tonight, I can't vote for it. Not because it's not the right plan and not because I don't believe in each of the cases that have been made for the different exhibits. But because if I don't follow the ordinance to its maximum, I just I can't I can't be that representative. I have to air on the side of it. So this is not about the quality of the plan, but I hope we delay because if we don't, I can't vote for this tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman Kenney. Councilwoman Fox. Thank you, Mr. President. First I have a question of David Broadwell. David, I've heard from and David is our assistant city attorney. I've heard from one of our attorneys that there is nothing in the process that would cloud the legality of our acting. Tonight, I want to be sure that our entire legal team is on board with that. Could you please answer? Would anything cloud the legitimacy of our action if we were to deny the postponement and go ahead and take action? David Broadwell, Assistant City Attorney I concur 100% with the explanation that Laurie Strand provided earlier and there would be nothing illegal about acting on the merits of the the building plan tonight. Thank you. If I could then make a comment. I understand Councilwoman Robb's and Councilwoman Canisius, concerned about the process of the agency, dropped the ball. A maternity leave is not a reason to let things drop through the cracks, as supervisors need to be on top of what their employees are doing. So there are I mean, there are no bouquets to the agency for that tonight. On the other hand, though, I heard I heard 17 people speak in favor. I heard two people speak, I'd say against. But in a sense, it wasn't necessarily against. It was concern about more that the the group that they had been promised in December had yet to be convened. And I don't know how a ten day problem corrects that. I don't know what to do about that. All I can say is I am very, very sorry that didn't come. I appreciate the fact you had quotes from some of my colleagues of I understand your frustration about that, but I don't see how that relates here. I didn't have anybody say, Gee, I don't want three buildings slightly oversize. I don't want one building too high. Nobody gave me any specifics that they were concerned about. And if indeed the neighborhood associations were to get together and I knew that there were concerns that people were going to be raising, saying, well, gee, should we be having a larger footprint? Should we be having only two buildings, I mean, some kind of substance? But we have spent well over an hour talking about process and ten days, not about what was being proposed. And I really do appreciate the fact that I see members from our Parks Advisory Board here, I see members from the zoo , I see volunteers, and we see other neighborhood associations. I mean, we have a chamber full of people, which is kind of unusual. Folks are coming here largely in support of this plan. And so I have no intention of voting to postpone it because I don't think it'll solve anything. I want to go ahead and adopt it tonight. Understanding and really appreciating the frustration of my two colleagues. I, I don't disagree with them, but I don't think a postponement will solve a problem. And so I urge us to deny the postponement and go ahead and vote on this plan. Thank you, Councilwoman. Thoughts, Councilwoman Sussman. Well, I think Councilwoman Fox. Said it much better than I could, but I. Would just like to. Echo her thoughts that we spent a. Lot of time on process, but all we heard was support for what is being proposed. Thank you, Councilwoman Sussman. Councilman Brown. Thank you, Mr. President. I hope the people in the room heard the key part of delaying this, and that is that you can't testify again. You cannot testify on May 18th. So if I'm one of you who took time to come down here tonight. And sit on those hard benches and pay to park. And I'm driving home. What the hell am I thinking? What? What. What kind of time that I waste tonight? Could. You can't testify again. You're kidding me. I accept your testimony, and I think we should vote on this really soon, like in the next couple of minutes. Thank you, Mr. President. Councilman Brown. Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you. I appreciate the testimony that everyone has given here tonight as well. But I am concerned that if people did not get a chance to actually look at the building plan, which was not available to people to look at on the website, we have basically a map showing that I want to make sure that people know exactly what they were being asked to approve as it was being brought forward. And I appreciate all the work that's been done by the zoo. I had an opportunity to sit down and look at the master plan. Again, it's a different document than the building plan. One of the slides that we have here shows. Exactly. How many buildings are being proposed to be replaced. And again, you know, this is a master plan. These things are subject to change. But my questions about what is the process so that as we do have buildings that may exceed the limit that we're being asked to approve here, that there is a robust outreach plan. And then it's more than just saying, come and tell us what you think. And we can say we had a public process, but we may not necessarily take your input and fold that in. And I'm not saying that's not what has occurred in this process of bringing the master plan forward, but to have people really know what that building plan looks like, I think is very important. And the fact that we have a map that shows that. I'm not real sure how much more detail in a separate document that's been filed that we haven't seen. And I think it's important that we know exactly what we're voting for. And I am concerned that people who came here tonight will not have the opportunity to testify if this postponement is successful tonight. But I think it's important that people know, including this body, what we're being asked to approve. I am concerned about what impact this has to the Tiger project. And Shannon, if you could speak to what the timing is of that as it was proposed to move forward once we got past this process. Can you just help us understand what the effect is on that particular project? Council I don't want to. Part it's part of my questioning. Am I being able to make a decision and knowing what the effect is going to be to the particular decision? This is the comment period we have passed for the comment period. We're speaking to the. We're commenting on the motion. So I I'm I'm leaving this now just for comments from members of council, please. Well, that's part of my being able to make a decision. I absolutely understand. But we've we've foregone questioning. So I would ask if you could just make your comment, because I don't want to I want to stick with comments from members of council. I've made my comments. Okay. Thank you, Councilwoman. I take Councilwoman Laymon. Thank you, Mr. President. I represent a district that's very far from the zoo. It's the far southeast corner of Denver. It has a gazillion children and it has lots and lots of families that go to the zoo all the time. I do a monthly newsletter that I put out and me and my I think it was my March newsletter. We did something about this whole zoo point plan. Do you know how many comments I had about this plan that said, Oh, tell me, oh, those buildings look awfully big? Or Tell me these this plan doesn't look very good or anything negative about this plan. I had none. They were informed. They. They did. The process didn't go perfectly. We've learned a lot from that. But. My fear, my district and the people in my district are very, very excited about this. And I think. That 30 days. And a map of what this looks like will not make one bit of difference to them. And so I will vote for this. Thank you, Councilwoman Lemon. Councilman Lopez. Thank you, Mr. President. You know, I do I do believe that, you know, folks came here for a public hearing for a reason. So they do they do have input so they can give testimony. And I heard to an opposition I was actually wondering 17 you know, when we saw the speakers, I thought to myself, I said . 17 in favor to an opposition. One person should just say I support it. Dun dun do. But I think it was important to actually hear from folks and and I do appreciate it. And, you know, the Denver Zoo is our zoo. It's the city's zoo. It's this, you know, I don't want to alarm Pueblo or Colorado Springs or any others. I mean, they have nice views, but. But ours takes the cake. And and and, you know, I think there is a lot of planning that's going to be involved. This isn't the first time that that that something is going to be constructed in a zoo. This isn't something that's being built in or on park land. This is in the zoo. And I think folks were clear from that, from the get go, from the start of the process, from the committee meeting. Yes, maybe there is some technicalities. But I think at the end of the day, we didn't come to, you know, come here to be dismissed by a technicality. And if there was that opposition. I think they would be here. If there was such outright opposition, they would outnumber the supporters. And it's not. Well, there's a lot of opposition out there. What matters is what's in here and the folks that are willing to show up and speak and present themselves. And I think this you know, this team at the zoo has been outright honest. They've been very forthcoming. They've been very transparent and almost got peed on by a lion. I almost did. It was it was ridiculous. I was able to really understand this plan, see it firsthand, almost get peed on by a lion. And just for that, just for that, I do want to support a supporter. I was zoo, but also thank you all for showing up. Even the folks in our position. I'm not dismissing, you know, I just think it's a it's a great conversation to have. But it's a zoo, folks. This is our zoo. It is a privilege to be voting on a plan in a city that run on a zoo. In our city. Right. There are some people who would die, would kill. There are some cities who would love to have our city and would take this controversy without a doubt, because they would just simply love to have a zoo like Denver's. So I understand, Councilman Rahm, your reasoning. You know, I think you you make a lot of sense. I won't be supporting the motion to continue, and I will be supporting this bill's passage tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Lopez. Any other comments on the motion to continue? 172 to Monday, May 18th, to remind the council members vote of affirmative. We will we will continue the Republican one month. If we defeated, we will close the public hearing comments on the plan and vote. So. Madam Secretary, roll call. Rob, I. Sheppard. No. Susman. Brooks. No. Brown. No farts. No carnage. I. Laman. No. Lopez. No. Monteiro no. Nevitt No. Ortega by Mr. President? No. Councilwoman Fox. Got it. Madam Secretary, please. Because I've only announced the results for ice. Nine days. For ice nine days. The motion to continue the public hearing to May 18th has been defeated. All right. So you know the questions. The public hearing on 172 is now closed. Time for comments, Councilman Brooks. Thank you, Mr. President. I first address the comments about the NRC. Let's let's go back to December. I don't think anyone talked about a specific date that would we'll start this. I don't think anyone said that it would be prior to the master plan or the building plan. Matter of fact, it was very clear they said sometime this spring. Because we know that as soon as I got down to the community, I heard something very different than I was hearing in this community meeting. And as we sent the email out, it showed by the slow response from half the neighbors, Why do we need this ? What's the importance of this? I thought we had City Park Alliance. City Park Alliance is supposed to be representing us. So there was a lot of education that need to happen. As of last week, we got our eighth neighborhood on board. So we have our eighth representation. We have eight neighborhoods that are represent, representing. And we'll be kicking off our happy hour, if you will. Because Lord knows we need to bring some people together. We'll kick off a happy hour at the Museum of Nature and Science as soon as George Sparks can schedule it. I hope that answers your question. I am. I feel like it's a it's an tremendous privilege to have this gift, this jewel in our park, to have the park and to also have the zoo and to live in that tension is really tough. But that's why that's why we enter into leadership, is to deal with these tough issues. I'm not going to back away from it. I'm going to dove right into it. And I want to deal with it. And I feel like we have been we have been responsive to folks who said, you know what, let's get a landmark committee around this park to make sure that all of the buildings and all the proposed plans may be landmark, just like a civic center is. Our office led in that, and we put that together. And so, you know, I, I think it's important that folks know that we're working hard, especially in district office, to provide some balance because not everyone is unified in their voice. Right. A lot of people have a lot of differing opinions. But what we all can agree is that we are one of the most diverse, eclectic, cool districts in the city. Sorry, everybody else. Hey. And. And we have a park that unites us. We don't always agree on everything, but we're united. And when you go to that park on a Saturday, in a Sunday, you may be a little frustrated because of all those cars at the zoo from those folks from Douglas County are like, this is the best zoo in the state. I know I get fresh because I want to ride my bike there. But I just walk away and I say, my gosh, look at this jewel. Look at every great pitcher in Denver is from the Museum of Nature and Science, headed to the mountains. We've got the legendary District three has some cool stuff, too. But I just want us. To stop for a minute, stop bickering for just a minute and think about the greatness in which we have. And let's come around find common ground around the greatness and not around all the issues, because there's more that unites us than divides us. Now, you may not like what I've said, but. I just believe in humanity. I believe in this park. I believe in our assets. And I believe that we have an awesome opportunity to be great in the future. So, you know, I will be supporting this plan. I will be working with Shannon to make sure Shannon Black, CEO, to make sure that the development of future buildings and as we look at the master plan comes before this advisory committee gets on Facebook, gets on next or any kind of other issue, I'll make sure that George Palm makes sure that we have that map on there for all to see. And that's one thing that I can guarantee. And so thank you for all of you guys for coming tonight. Sorry for it. Taking so long to approve an incredible plan for our future, our city. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Brooks, Catwoman Canete. Thank you, Mr. President. I want to speak first to the the merits of the plan and before I clarify my vote in a little more detail. So I think this is a really strong building plan that I am voting on tonight. And in particular, I want to highlight two things that I think were confused by some people who opposed it. There is not an expansion of the zoo before us tonight. The footprint does not change. And I see nothing in the size of the buildings or their placement that threatens the zoo or the park or the community beyond the park. So those arguments have not resonated. I see no evidence of that. And I think that this zoo does need to evolve, to continue to thrive. And, you know, I've been a dues paying member. I may have lapsed. I may not be one today, but I have I have a six year old son and we are regulars at the zoo. And I concur with everything my colleague and others said about in the testimony tonight about how very vibrant and important I used to actually have mixed feelings about zoos in terms of the animal quality of life. And it was really the education about the breeding and the habitat preservation that zoos have had an impact on. That became very transformational for me and understating the role that zoos play scientifically, aside from just being a great place for families to go. So, so I really will say that if we had, you know, continued this, I don't think that, you know, the arguments and I will say there has been opposition in the record beyond who is testified today. So we do have letters of opposition in our record. And I speak to them as well when I say those arguments have not resonated with me. So I have to vote no because of the principle. And I actually have experience with this because some of you may remember a year ago, I sponsored an ordinance for a zoning change for fresh food. I did nine months of neighborhood outreach for that ordinance and the exact language of the exact ordinance that was before us. And unfortunately, the city council staff missed a deadline for notifying our nose, even though I had sent the same meeting notice to all of those same RINOs. We didn't meet the letter of the law and I sat on my ordinance and we continued the hearing. All the proponents came the first night, just like tonight, and they spoke persuasively. And we waited a month to make sure that we were following the letter of our law, because that's a principle that I believe in. And and so I there's precedent for doing that. And it was hard it was hard for me to do it because I knew that everybody knew and I knew that they'd seen the actual language in this case. I don't know that everyone saw the actual plan because that wasn't part of the outreach in all cases, in the in the website, etc.. And the principle matters maybe not to the folks in this room, but I don't want to. Councilman Alvis Brooks's point about the bickering. I am exhausted from the bickering that's occurred in our city over change, over zoning, changes over, you know, changes of institutions like the zoo. And I feel like when we don't follow these principles to the letter, we only give air to the sails of our critics. And I don't want to give air to those sales because I don't think they're valid in many cases. So my vote tonight is in in that spirit. And for those of you who were here tonight passionately supportive, I hope you understand that principle and understand that it has no bearing on my wish for your success. And what I count is likely to. Be an affirmative vote in spite of my my inability to go along with that. But hopefully we will have a successful zoo. And, you know, a thank you to Councilman Brooks for the work that he's done to try to put together an advisory committee. Hopefully, that will take some wind out of the sails of bickering and criticism in spite of our vote tonight. So thank you very much. Thank you. Councilwoman. Can each councilman that it? Thank you, Mr. President. First off, just to correct a technical error. Technical error on my part. I voted no on the motion to postpone this, but pressed the yes button so I would if the secretary could correct that in the record. Thank you. And turning to the second non-trivial technical error, there was a non-trivial technical error in the process for considering this building plan, and it's a shame that that non-trivial technical error occurred. Nonetheless. If if that error had occurred in a process that was meeting the bare minimum required for public input and public notification, that would be a problem. But this was a technical error that occurred in a process that went wildly above and beyond any expectation. And the testimony here is that so many people were involved and formed engaged in this process, including registered neighborhood organizations, that I couldn't in good conscience hold this up on a technical error, particularly when the testimony was virtually not just in favor, but even the negative testimony wasn't about the plan itself. It was about process. So the technical error is a shame, but I don't think it should hold us up in in moving forward with this plan. And so I'm going to be voting in favor of it. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Levitt. Councilman Moran. Oh, thank you, Mr. President. First to go to which district is coolest. I will admit there's some great representation down there in Council District eight exhibited by your councilman's remarks. But I want to point out that Council District ten probably had the most people down here testifying because I figure the Park Hill folks were broken up between eight five and 11. So I really want to thank people who sat here and endured my great frustration over the process, because when people are doing things right, it just shouldn't come out wrong. I believe that we could have remembered the very strong testimony from tonight and proceeded in a month. I brought the park building plan and it seems like a big headache right now, but I brought the park building plan ordinance originally because I am a very strong supporter of our parks and I believe they are the people's parks. I also believe the zoo is the People's Zoo, but they are the People's Park. And the difference between the outreach that occurs as you're getting ready to go through with an ordinance and the actual notification that a plan is is filed, that's a notification that says to neighborhoods, okay, it's time to weigh in. And that's the piece that wasn't there. That said, I'm not a sore loser. Part of me is very glad that the zoo doesn't have to come back down here in a month and that we can move on. And I am realizing that my colleagues feel that this should not be continued. I am going to vote in favor of this tonight because I don't want anyone to take the impression away from this that the zoo was an error. This was the city's fault, not the zoos. And I don't want that being the impression that comes out of this discussion tonight. Thank you, Councilwoman Robb. Councilwoman Monteiro. Thank you, Mr. President. I wanted to say that through this process, a couple of things that I noticed. The first one was that. There was an expectation that this should be handled in a quasi judicial manner in terms of us voting on kind of zoning and land use, which we do. Because of the park building plan. So there was it seemed like there was kind of an underlying expectation that that should happen. The second piece that I wanted to say is that. It was the process that did go forward was as if it was a zoning land use with the extension of the vigorous public engagement that was done by the zoo. And so I just want to give those observations, do what you want with them. But I would just say that in terms of the future. For. Today, which is eight. But tomorrow or. In a few weeks will be District nine, then maybe there's some lessons learned in terms of how that group goes forward and. I learned a lot tonight because. There's big things coming forward in District nine in the future. For example, the National Western Stock Show and all of the the buildings and land uses and text amendments or whatever that are going to go on in the future. And I think that in terms of lessons learned and. The. Councilman or counsel for that district, that that's something that we're going to want to look at because they're they're very, very large. Not that the zoo is at the same capacity as National Western, I mean, in terms of land use, but in terms of public notification and how you handle these kinds of buildouts for the future infrastructure, huge kind of things that not only have a neighborhood perspective, but also in some cases regional, for example, the zoo and National Western. I will be supporting it. And I just want to say that this has been an excellent, excellent lesson for me in terms of, you know, you you kind of think you know everything. And the minute you start thinking that is a minute that you don't know anything and you have to start a conversation. So thank you, everybody, for coming tonight and I plan to support it. Thank you, Councilwoman Monteiro. Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to say, I think I actually represent the best district. So we had two issues tonight. One was the notification concern and whether, you know, and how the deadline was missed. And I'm not here to beat up on our Parks Department for that process. And then the other was the availability and and access to the building plan for everybody that was being asked to weigh in. I have been at the zoo on many, many occasions, taking my daughter when she was growing up and taking my grandchildren there who just loved the zoo. And I'm excited about the things that are yet to come. I'm excited to hear about the Tiger exhibit moving forward, and I'm anxious to see that. Those changes. So that hopefully will continue to bring in even more people that want to see the changes. Somebody testified about their their child, you know, exceeding in age where they felt like they I've seen it all been there. But, you know, as these changes are made, it it rejuvenates that excitement in in everybody who loves animals and appreciates the care that is done by the zoo. I am so grateful. The fact that we have so many residents that live in the neighborhood, that are volunteers and and have this same passion and love for maintaining this incredible asset that we have in this city. And I think it is important to move forward with this. I raised my concerns, supported the motion to postpone, but that failed. And I don't think we need to hold things up from from moving forward. The votes are here tonight for it to continue to move forward. And I would just ask that the advisory committee that's being created, that as the meetings occur and discussions are taking place about historic designation of City Park, that it not be isolated to just the key people who serve on that body, but that there be some larger public meetings and the opportunity for greater input about what that looks like and ensure that others who are not sitting on the committee have the opportunity to look at what those changes might entail before that particular designation might be brought forward before City Council for Adoption. Thank you so much. Thank you, Councilwoman Ortega. Councilman Brown. Thank you, Mr. President. We heard some interesting stories tonight about various zoo animals, but I must confess, I was taken aback when a new animal was introduced in our discussion. And that new animal was a lame duck. I can't wait to see the new exhibit. We were told by a speaker that since at least six of us are, quote, lame ducks, we shouldn't even vote on this tonight, that we should delay it, that we should vote to delay and let the new council decide the fate of this plan. Obviously, I beg to differ. We have a lot of important issues coming before this council. Our last Monday night meeting is July 13th. Lame duck is not on our menu. We're going to work to the bitter end. I support this plan 100%, and I welcome to the opportunity to do my job and to vote tonight. And I will vote yes. Thank you, Mr. Brown. Thank you, Councilman Brown. Any other comments on 172? Mm hmm. Seeing on Madam Secretary. Roll call. Brooks Brown. I forgot. I can each. Layman. Lopez Monteiro. I never. I'm going. To get it right. This time. I Ortega. I Rob Shepherd. I Susman. Hi, Mr. President. Hi, Madam Secretary. Please collectively announce the results. 12 days, one. Day, 12 eyes, one nay, 172 has been placed on file consideration and does pass. Senor. The business before this body. Do you know how the business for this body. This meeting is adjourned. Denver eight TV. Your city. Your source. Denver. Eight on TV and online. Stay connected to your community, your city, your source. You are watching Denver. Eight TV's Your City, your source. Made a pledge that.