John Scarffe, Nederland.   The Nederland Board of Trustees imposed a temporary moratorium on the submission, acceptance, processing and approval of accessory dwelling unit applications during a regular Nederland Board of Trustees meeting at 7 p.m. on Monday, November 5, 2018, in the Nederland Community Center. The board also added language to the town code for in-home daycares and extended time frames for planned unit development applications.

Town Administrator Karen Gerrity requested that the trustees impose a temporary moratorium on the submission, acceptance, processing and approval of applications for accessory dwelling units (ADUs). An ordinance passed by the board goes into effect on November 17, 2018.

The board would like to continue reviewing the ordinance, so this temporary moratorium will give the board six more months from today. An ordinance adopted on May 17, 2018 permitted and regulated ADUs, according to the agenda information memorandum, and is set to go into effect six months after adoption, specifically on November 17, 2018.

The Board of Trustees met with the Nederland Planning Commission in a joint work session on August 22, 2018, to discuss ADUs and short-term rentals and directed staff to make changes as well as to enact regulations concerning short-term rentals, which have been discussed by the board and worked on by staff for years, according to the memo.

The Board of Trustees has been listening to public input and thoroughly considering amendments to the ADU ordinance, as well as to draft a short-term rental regulation ordinance in recent months, according to the memo. “The Board of Trustees has decided that it makes the most sense from a policy perspective, as well as for clarity to homeowners, to look at both the ADU and STR regulations concurrently.”

This means the board need a little more time before the upcoming November 17 implementation of the ADU ordinance, according to the memo. Additionally, this ordinance is considered an “emergency” and will be effective upon adoption.

The board approved imposing a moratorium on the submission, acceptance, processing and approval of applications for ADUs. The board also discussed an ordinance concerning “in-home child care.”

Gerrity said that town staff was approached by a resident who wanted to offer licensed in-home child care, but municipal code doesn’t address that specifically. The draft ordinance permits this use by special review where “private, elementary and secondary schools, state licensed group homes for the developmentally disabled and child care centers” are currently allowed.
It’s pretty basic and includes the definition of in-home child care. “In-home child care means a place of residence that is licensed by the State and provides less than 24-hour care at any time for two or more children that are unrelated to each other or the provider and are cared for in the provider’s place of residence.”

Town staff is recommending that the code be revised to permit in-home child care as a use by special review. Mayor Kristopher Larsen asked if there is a limitation on the total number of children allowed, and Gerrity said it’s based on ages and square footage, as specified by the state.

Trustee Kristen Conrad said houses are very close together in Nederland, and what if the house next door had 20 kids showing up. Gerrity said it still needs to go through the Planning Commission and the public process.

Mayor Pro-Tem Julie Gustafson said it is a business in a residential area, so the special review would need to provide feedback and see if it is something that will work. “As long as that’s the case, I think it’s a good idea.”

Trustee Dallas Masters asked about the person who is doing this in their house with no impact on the neighbors, and now they have to go through special review. Some parents take care of their own kids and then have another one or two. “I think we’re forcing people to be licensed for in-home child care, and it will raise alarm bells for people who are doing this.

“The thing I’m describing is a home occupation, and we have a whole clause on home occupation, what you can do and now we’re setting it aside differently,” Masters said. Gerrity said that staff looked at that, and they don’t think home occupation allows in-home child care. It shall not include a use which requires a special use permit.

Staff spent much time trying to make this work using current code and could not find a way to make it work, so we have it align with others that require a special review, Gerrity said. “We’ve had no complaints about in-home child care services.”

Gustafson asked if you can still provide child care in your home without being state licensed. “I think it’s pretty common to do that or have a nanny share at your house one week and my house the next.”

Gerrity said that’s very different than operating an in-home child care business. Larsen said that this has come to the town as a request and is a kind of business that we currently don’t allow. It would be allowed with a lot of review and adherence to state licensing codes.

Town Attorney Nina Petraro said town code doesn’t provide a parameter for something that would be a child care center. The code was written before rising child care needs.

This is for anyone who wants a state license and has this in a residence. Child care is not in a residence as defined in the code.

Larsen said that, according to state regulations, you can have up to four kids without a license, so having a couple of kids doesn’t require a license, but this code allows those who want a license to get one.

During public comment, Trinity Wells said she moved here with her husband from Boulder one and a half years ago and now has an eight-month-old child, and finding child care has been very difficult. She has asked friends and is ready to go put up a poster in the high school.

Wells said she is here today to ask for support to get a state license. “We want our money to stay in Ned and want to grow our family here, and if we have another infant, we’re going to have to figure out how this will work.”

Wells doesn’t want to commute to Boulder for child care. She has looked into a nanny, but they would be commuting from Boulder, or one of the suburbs, or Longmont. She would prefer in-home child care.

Courtney Farrell has been a Nederland resident for three and a half years and is in a circle of friends with Trinity, but she was the first to have a child and didn’t have anyone to go to or anyone to set a precedent. People are offering nannying for infants and toddlers and have kids of their own. She would bring her kids over to their house, and she wasn’t really comfortable with that.

Farrell hired a young girl to come in a couple of days a week, and she had kids of her own. A lot of her friends work from home and are trying to balance that with raising kids, and in-home care is the best alternative, and the state license is a real draw to make sure her son is safe.

Trustee Conrad said if you’re trying to run a business, then you intend to run it as a business, and you have to be able to get a license. If you’re a grandma taking in a couple of kids, its’ not a business.

Larsen suggested changing it to read “provides less than 24-hour care within the provider’s residence,” and the board approved the amended ordinance unanimously.

Gerrity introduced an ordinance to extend the timeframe to process preliminary and final applications for Planned Unit Developments (PUD).

The town has received complaints regarding the required 30-day turn around, which allowed less time for public review.

The Planning Commission talked about it over several meetings and thought the timeframe should be extended from 30 to 60 days from when the application is deemed to be complete. At the September 26, 2018 Planning Commission meeting, members discussed extension of the review time for PUDs. Resident comments about the process for this type of land use application point out that there is currently not enough time allowed for review and comment by the public.

The Planning Commission continued the discussion at its October 24, 2018 meeting and agreed that the code language requiring a 30-day review time should be amended to a 60-day review timeframe. They directed staff to draft an ordinance and forward to the Board of Trustees for consideration at the November 5, 2018 meeting.

Gerrity said the biggest problem they have had so far is with the Boulder County Housing Authority Project, and it was a hardship for them as well. “You have a big project, and its complex, and you have some revisions, and then it has to go before the Board of Trustees.

“It doesn’t mean we have to slow down, so this isn’t a license to slack,” Gerrity said. “It just gives the public an opportunity.”

With the Boulder County Housing Authority project, the turnaround was only two weeks. “We had so many complaints from the public. That’s the one that stirred up the most angst in the community,” Gerrity said.
The board approved the ordinance. After a lengthy discussion about interviewing four legal firms in a search to replace or retain the current firm, the board agreed to set interviews with the firms on November 27, 2018, starting at 6 p.m. in the Community Center.

(Originally published in the November 15, 2018, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)