City manager outlines capital projects, tech upgrades and planning priorities

City manager Michael Penny told the Castle Pines City Council on May 26 that the new community center remains on schedule for a July opening and that several capital projects, technology upgrades and planning efforts are moving forward.

Penny opened the study-session presentation by asking the council to view staff work through a "stewards of the community experience" lens: "we're not really focused just on what services do we deliver. We're really focused on what is it to create an opportunity for people to live, work, play in this community," he said. That framing, he added, shaped project prioritization across public spaces, infrastructure and customer-facing services.

Key project updates included:

- Community center: On track for July occupancy; staff have discussed potential food-service tenants and expect to move most meetings to the new facility.

- Parks and recreation: Coyote Ridge Park is out to bid with award suspended for June, and construction is expected to start this year with some work extending into 2027. Penny said the department is upgrading point-of-sale systems for reservations and moving toward expanded recreation programming now that parks operations are consolidated under city staff.

- Splash pad and playgrounds: Planned upgrades include UV water treatment and corrosion improvements for the splash pad (treated as a pool under state inspection rules). The parks-and-rec director is now certified to perform annual playground inspections.

- Wildfire and wildlife work: The city will continue wildfire mitigation primarily as maintenance this year and expand a private-property/HOA grant program to include pine and spruce beetle mitigation. The city also plans short educational wildfire videos and a refreshed community wildfire prevention implementation plan that will incorporate recently acquired east-side property.

- Asset management and resident reporting: Staff are creating a GIS-based inventory of assets (trees, signs, playground equipment) and considering QR codes, a text-reporting number or an app to let residents report issues directly. Penny said the asset database will feed a long-term capital-improvement plan and replacement schedules.

- Records, minutes and AI tools: The city is moving packet production into Granicus to reduce versioning errors, evaluating AI tools to automate minutes and improve video searchability, and will include a disclaimer noting that AI-produced transcriptions should be verified against video.

- Finance and OpenGov: Council previously approved OpenGov modules; finance staff will use the system to assemble the 2027 budget and to reduce manual data transfers. Penny described the public interface as an improved, more searchable presentation of budget and spending data.

- Use tax on horizontal construction materials: Penny told council the city's existing ordinance allows collecting a use tax on horizontal materials (for example, water line pipe, asphalt and concrete) but the city has not had systems in place to collect it. "Our current ordinance already allows us to collect that. We just haven't had a process built into our systems to allow us to collect that," he said. Finance and community development will develop a process and bring recommendations back to council.

- Planning and land-use work: The city plans to recommend Logan Simpson to lead a year-long comprehensive-plan update, is circulating an annexation-policy survey and expects to bring early-action land-use code items (process and design criteria) to the planning commission in June for council consideration in July.

Public comment and follow-ups: Resident Nikita Garza asked whether the proposed use tax might "disincentivize or maybe even slow down construction of our horizontal infrastructure," and Penny said staff would analyze revenue estimates and report back.

Why it matters: The study session bundled operational changes (records, IT, finance) with capital project timing (community center, parks, stormwater and the Happy Canyon gateway work) that will shape near-term construction activity, budgeting and resident-facing services. Council requested follow-ups on several items, including participation numbers for mitigation grants and the revenue estimate for the horizontal-use tax.

What comes next: Staff will return with more detailed proposals and, where required, ordinances or intergovernmental agreements (for CDOT projects). The meeting transitioned to the regular business session after the study session adjourned.