On Tuesday, March 15, 2022, at 7 p.m. the Nederland Board of Trustees held their first “hybrid” meeting. Board members met in public at the Nederland Community Center, as well as online, along with members of the community for the first time in two years. Despite the fact that the new policy for such meetings is being adjusted as they move forward, both Trustees and the public were happy to be meeting in person once again.

After roll call and approving the Consent agenda, the BOT heard a mixture of public comments from those in attendance and remotely. Town Administrator Miranda Fisher and the BOT handled concerns and questions on the Town’s Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with Boulder County, which has been renewed, as written, until December, 2022. Rewriting a new IGA will be up to the next BOT, as there are four open seats being campaigned for in the election to be held on April 5.

Claims that the town’s application process for a Special Review Use (SRU) is too expensive for the applicant were lobbied to the BOT. An SRU is a license allowing a business to hold outdoor operations and events and requires the applicant to hire an attorney for the application process. The concern is that these attorney costs arise even before a preliminary review from the BOT on the business’s plan. This could leave the applicant vulnerable to losing thousands of dollars if rejected.

Fisher and Trustee Tania Corvalan disagreed over whether or not the news of Mayoral Candidate Julian Taylor’s planned move to New York state should have been made public sooner. Concerns were raised that with Taylor running unopposed he will be an acting mayor from out of state until the next BOT decides how to bring in a new mayor. However, without more than one candidate willing to step forward the public may lose their vote to the BOT.

Mayor Kristopher Larsen moved on to the first Action Item on the agenda, which was a resolution proposing to rescind the Declaration of Local Disaster Emergency.

The declaration was signed by Larsen on March 15, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It enabled virtual attendance for town meetings as well as gave the Town Clerk the authority to issue temporary use permits for businesses. The BOT approved rescinding the declaration, though as a result the BOT must take further action on a new Hybrid Meeting Policy.

The BOT had to adapt a new policy to govern how virtual attendance and “unexcused absences” of Board members would be handled for hybrid meetings.

While public attendance will always be hybrid going forward, the newly drafted policy requires Trustees to provide adequate notice for absences. The policy covers most situations that might constitute an emergency, though there was concern that the policy was instituting rules stricter than those under the Declaration of Local Disaster Emergency.

Trustee Eric Coombs-Esmail added an amendment to the resolution to add proper language concerning the elderly and medically compromised in regard to providing them “reasonable accommodations” to meetings. The BOT unanimously approved the Hybrid Meeting Policy.

The next Action Item on the agenda was a public hearing for Caribou Room’s application for an SRU to allow for the continuance of outdoor events. During the pandemic Caribou Room was granted use of their parking lot property to provide outdoor events for the public. Caribou Room would not only like to continue with outdoor events but would also like to update the property to better accommodate the events and the Caribou Room’s neighbors.

Caribou Room owner Peter Fiori was willing to make many concessions to the Board and to the public to make an outdoor Summer music series a reality. Fiori was asking for noise variances for six events over the three-month Summer season; these noise variances cover an event going up to 105 decibels (db), which is double the Town’s noise ordinance maximum of 72 dB.

Despite Nederland’s history of being a place for music, the outdoor concert and event scene has been severely diminished since the beginning of the pandemic. Caribou Room’s case became more about what was best for the community than adhering to the quality-of-life concerns of adjacent property owners.

The very definition of “adjacency” came into question by Trustee Coombs-Esmail and Trustee Taylor, since the matter of property adjacency was the only quasi-judicial matter in which Caribou Room’s SRU request was somewhat questionable. However, maps provided by Town Hall show that there is no adjacent property concern, since a small sliver of public land lies between Caribou Room and its closest neighbors.

Fiori and the BOT heard several comments from the public, with a majority of them coming in favor of Caribou Room’s proposal. Fiori assured the BOT of the venue’s ability to redirect sound away from neighbors if given the chance to update the outdoor staging. He also agreed to ensure that events don’t go over 105 dB, and that they end by 9 p.m.

Caribou Room’s SRU application was accepted and approved by the BOT.

Board members moved on to their only Discussion Item on the agenda, which was on the results of the Parking in the Central Business District (CBD) survey. With town officials having gathered the data provided by the 61 business and 122 citizen surveys, all Nederland advisory boards and commissions provided their suggestions for moving forward.

Results from the survey showcased the unpopularity of such proposals as having Public Works locate town-owned “right of way” property to convert to parking space. The proposal of bringing paid parking to the CBD was considered as an option among the community, though with the caveat of exemptions for locals.

Concepts for paid parking included a combination of a phone app and kiosks, as well as some areas having a 15 to 30 minute grace period. Incoming Marshal Jennifer Fine-Loven pointed out that partnering with an app could be expensive and that paid parking enforcement would require additional staff. All trustees agreed that more enforcement of parking and of speeding issues in town is necessary.

There was agreement among the Trustees that an addition of a parking garage on the RTD lot is the clearest solution. With the NDDA Wayfinding project and Main Streets initiatives moving forward to bring better accessibility to the CBD, addressing Nederland’s parking problems is a priority for this and the next BOT.

The Nederland Board of Trustees meets on the first and third Tuesdays of the month.

Their next scheduled meeting is for Tuesday, April 19, 2022, at 7 p.m. due to the election being held on Tuesday, April 5. For more information go to: https://townofnederland.colorado.gov/boardof trustees