At Monday night’s Aurora City Council study session, councilmembers will vote on several ordinances that, if passed Monday and then officially at a future regular council meeting, would take several questions about the city charter and councilmember rules to voters in November.

The first would update the language of the city charter to create gender neutrality.

The existing charter uses gendered language, including pronouns and titles that “presume a specific gender for city officials, employees and citizens,” council documents read. 

If passed, the ordinance would ask voters in November if the language should be changed to “promote clarity, equality and consistency.”

Language changes would include changing words like “chairman” to “chairperson” and “his” to “that person’s.”

Other ballot questions would include asking voters about City Council vacancies, residency requirements for the city manager, allowance of public officials to hold more than one public office at once, and salary amounts for councilmembers. 

The latter would ask voters if the city charter should be amended to determine salaries for the mayor and city councilmembers based on the salaries of Arapahoe County commissioners.

Also Monday, councilmembers will vote on the next step toward building a new animal shelter. 

Last year, the council authorized a resolution allowing the city to reimburse itself for the cost of building the new animal shelter.

Monday night’s ordinance, if passed in study session and then in a regular council meeting, authorizes lease-purchase financing for the animal shelter. 

The shelter is expected to have public areas, pet adoption, animal care, animal holding space, staff offices, back-of-house support, and other spaces typical of most animal shelters, according to council documents.

It is planned to be a 38,000-square-foot facility built on existing city-owned property near the current animal shelter and will include more than 250 animal housing units.

The shelter will cost about $51 million, with $27 million of that cost being lease-purchase financing if approved by the council, according to city documents. Another $2.9 million will come from American Rescue Plan Act funds, $5 million will be capital project funds and $16 million will be general government capital impact fees. 

Construction will likely begin in the second half of 2026. 

The city’s current facility was built 40 years ago and the city has grown a lot since, requiring more space to accommodate the city’s 400,000 residents, council documents state. 

The council will hear an overview of a public safety facilities master plan, which includes updates on current public safety infrastructure and plans to update it for the future.

The city needs about $1.5 billion worth of projects for the Aurora Police Department, Aurora Fire Rescue and Aurora911 to address all of the identified challenges, which include aging infrastructure, space and operational constraints, and shared facility issues, according to council documents. 

Monday night’s study session is open to the public via livestream at 3:45 p.m. The public comment session will not be livestreamed, and will be held in the Paul Tauer Aurora City Council Chamber at the Aurora Municipal Center, 15151 E. Alameda Parkway, starting at 6 p.m.

The regular meeting of the council will follow starting at 6:45 p.m., also in the Paul Tauer Chamber.

Livestreams are available at auroraTV.org, on Youtube.com/TheAuroraChannel, as well as on cable channels 8 and 880.