Good morning, neighbors! On Friday, December 7, the Board of Trustees held our first “First Fridays” event with the new Board. I am thrilled to announce that Trustee Sandie Hammerly and I will be presiding over these sessions going forward (though all Trustees are invited to attend). I’m really looking forward to meeting many of you at these informal gatherings.

This month, in addition to Trustee Hammerly and I, Trustee Kevin Ryan was in attendance, and Trustee Ken Lish joined the group halfway through. As First Fridays are casual in nature, it’s tough for me to fully recap the discussion. However, I thought it would be helpful for me to give a short rundown of the topics discussed, which can help provide a pulse of the town:

• How Superior Town Center (STC) can be connected to the rest of the town: Right now, the only way to access STC is via Main Street (from the roundabout at McCaslin), and this roundabout is already congested. Discovery Parkway will soon provide another access point, as will Marshall Road. However, there are three potential future connections being discussed: Campus Drive (a bridge to Louisville; this will likely come at some point in the far future, as a bridge is an expensive undertaking); Promenade Drive (an extension of the road within STC to 88th Street; also expensive); and Coal Creek Drive (originally planned for access to Rock Creek, but some residents have concerns about increased neighborhood traffic).
• Aging in place programming: Boulder offers this; perhaps Superior should be looking into it as well. There were several residents who spoke up wanting more main level living floorplans, or even multistory floorplans that would allow elevators to be added in the future.
• Comprehensive Plan: As I noted during my campaign, our Comprehensive Plan has not been updated since 2012, though the plan itself calls for evaluation / updates by the Planning Committee every 3-5 years. A resident noted that as part of the update process, we should consider focus groups to understand why people are / aren’t engaging with the town.
• Communications: Thank you so much to those residents who came specifically to discuss my pet topic! We talked about how we can leverage technology to better engage with residents. I’d like to see us proactively publish all emails sent to the Board, as Louisville does, to increase transparency and ensure that residents know what others are discussing. We also discussed publishing transcripts / notes sooner after meetings, adding a search feature to meeting videos, and adding the ability for residents to subscribe to alerts for certain keywords. I will be discussing communications at length during the December 17 Board Retreat, and have already had this put on the agenda.
• Redesigning the Superior Sentinel: The multi-column format is more conducive to a printed newsletter than for online reading.
• CAPS Committee Update: Chairwoman Darryl McCool noted that the sculpture that will go in the roundabout at McCaslin and Main Street is on schedule for completion this spring. CAPS is also working to issue an RFP to create a Master Plan in 2019, and will be hosting three family-friendly Main Events at Superior Marketplace this summer.
• Discussion of Rocky Mountain Airport noise: This is a sticky topic that the Board is trying to address without exorbitant cost. More to come.
• School districting: Children that live in Original Town are not zoned to go to school in Superior; they go to Monarch K-8. Although this is not the domain of the Town Board, I was disappointed to learn this, as it divides our Town.
• McCaslin-adjacent trails: There is desire for a trail going from the top of McCaslin / Indiana at 128 down to Coal Creek, but it would be very expensive (more than $1M). There was also discussion around turning the McCaslin / 128 intersection into a roundabout, to prevent accidents, but this would also be expensive (more than $3M).
• Fire risk: Finally, a resident expressed concerns about the risk of fire in our neighborhood, particularly in light of the recent risk assessment from the Colorado Forest Service. Rocky Mountain Fire Department Secretary Suzanne DeVenny was in attendance, and told us that mitigation is one of the services that RMFD provides to the district.

Hope to see you at next month’s First Friday! In the meantime, our next Town Board Work Session and Town Board Meeting is tonight.

During the Work Session at 5:30pm, the Board will discuss progress and updates on development in Superior Town Center. In the Board Meeting that follows at 7:00pm, the Board will conduct two public hearings. The first is concerning an application by Whole Foods for a 3.2% off-premises liquor license. The second public hearing is around the zoning of the former Land Rover property on Coalton Road – when Land Rover was originally granted Regional Activity Center (RAC) zoning in 1998, it was with a stipulation that the zoning would return to Community Activity Center (CAC) zoning if Land Rover ever left. However, this summer, a used car dealership moved into the space and set up operations before this clause was noticed; the Board must now decide how to proceed. Finally, the meeting will conclude with an Executive Session for the Board to get legal advice from the Town Attorney on our oil & gas strategy.

If you have thoughts on these or other topics, I would encourage you to attend the Meeting at Town Hall tonight and speak up in public comment, or email the full Board at townboard@superiorcolorado.gov.