The Nederland Board of Trustees (BOT) met on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, at 7 p.m. to appoint the newest Trustee to the vacant seat on the Board. The BOT were also faced with voting on the future of the TEENS, Inc. child care proposal, and whether to submit the matter to a public vote. They were also expected to address the continuation of the Town’s Rights of Nature resolution.

Before the start of their meeting, the BOT held a closed executive session regarding “consideration of non-finalist applicants for the Town Manager position and which applications are protected by the mandatory nondisclosure provision of the Colorado Open Records Act, C.R.S. § 24-72204(3)(a)(XI)(A).”

With Trustee Kristopher Larsen having been elected to the BOT, a vacancy on the Sustainability Advisory Board (SAB) was created. The SAB recommended appointing alternate board member Patricia Dowd to the regular board member position.

The BOT approved the recommendation from the SAB. With Dowd appointed to the open seat, applications for the vacant position of alternate SAB member will be accepted from May 10 to May 31, 2024.

The Board approved Resolution 2024-23, approving an increase to the Boulder Regional Emergency Telephone Service Authority (BRETSA) regulatory fee for 911 phone calls from $0.75 to $1.25 per month.

Town Administrator Miranda Fisher recommended to the Board that the Town of Nederland approve and sign an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) to participate in the Regional Compliance Program.

This program is administered by the City of Boulder Department of Housing and Human Services through the Boulder County Regional Housing Partnership, and is aimed to create policy for affordable housing, encourage regional collaboration, support affordable housing programs, and meet the needs of “the most underserved in our community.”

According to the Agenda Information Memorandum (AIM), prepared by Fisher, the preliminary two-year program is provided free to the Town of Nederland.

If the Town were to continue after the initial two years, a financial contribution would be required, though it was stated that the services provided by the program could be transferred to the Peak-to-Peak Multi-jurisdictional Housing Authority, yet to be established, or to a Town of Nederland Housing Coordinator.

The AIM states that Town staff will be recommending to the BOT, at their meeting on May 21, to apply for a Local Planning Capacity grant in order to fund the position of Housing Coordinator.

The Board approved the IGA to participate in the Regional Compliance Program.

Trustees then voted whether to appoint Tierney Maris to the BOT. Maris was the only applicant for the open position on the Board made vacant by the resignation of former Mayor Pro Tem Tom Mahowald.

Maris moved to Nederland in 2023 from Boulder with her husband, their two dogs and two cats. She owns and operates her own firm where she practices immigrant law. She describes feeling a “deep connection” to the area and desires to use her skills of analysis, organization, and of managing challenging issues to assist the Board in its operations.

Trustees voted unanimously to appoint Maris to the vacant seat on the Board. Mayor Billy Giblin swore Maris in before she began serving as a Trustee.

The BOT voted on whether to approve Resolution 2024-20, which would repeal any resolutions pertaining to the Rights of Nature, the appointed Guardians, and particularly to the rights of Boulder Creek and the Boulder Creek Watershed.

The Town of Nederland recommends repealing the Rights of Nature so as to remove any potential restrictive factors from negatively affecting the Town’s diligence application filed with the Colorado water court in February.

According to the AIM, prepared by Mayor Billy Giblin, the Town is required to file the diligence application every six years. Additionally, Giblin states that the Town’s focus should be pursuing the development of the water right for the Nederland Reservoir to establish upstream water supply and storage.

The Board voted to repeal the Rights of Nature. For a full exposition of this issue, please read “Nederland repeals Rights of Nature,” on page 16 in this edition of The Mountain-Ear, or on our website.

Trustees were also faced with voting on Ordinance 861, which repeals Ordinance 859, the Special Review Use (SRU) application from TEENS, Inc. for a childcare facility to be constructed on Town-owned property at 750 West 5th Street.

The previous Board approved Ordinance 859 on February 20, 2024, going into effect on March 23. A referendum petition from members of the public asking to repeal the Board’s decision was submitted to the Town on March 22, and was declared sufficient by Town Clerk Macy Caligaris on April 16.

With no protest petition having been filed, the BOT is required to either repeal the previous Board’s decision approving the SRU from TEENS, Inc., or to hold a special election on July 30, 2024, to let the Nederland electorate vote on the matter.

Before discussing and making their decision regarding this matter, Trustees heard from members of the public. Though Mayor Giblin asked for public comment to be limited, as the issue of building a child care facility on this proposed lot has yielded an extreme amount of feedback from the community, several speakers were allowed to comment for the benefit of the newest members on the Board.

Some people commented on the legitimacy of the referendum petition and even asked for it to be disregarded due to the belief that several signatures were gained through disingenuous means.

One person commented that he did not do his due diligence in fully reading the petition. He signed it after being led to believe that the purpose of the petition was to place the matter of the TEENS, Inc. SRU on the April 2 municipal election ballot.

Mayor Giblin reiterated that the referendum petition was found to be sufficient and that no protest petition was filed to challenge that declaration of sufficiency.

Several people who spoke in support of the Board voting to bring the TEENS, Inc. SRU to a special election stated that, though they were not considered the Nederland electorate because they lived outside of Town’s boundaries, they would rally the voting community to support TEENS, Inc.

Those who spoke in opposition to the proposal felt they were being “vilified” by others and classified as “child haters” because they oppose the location of the facility. One individual felt that those expecting the Town to provide child care were entitled and that to sign the petition and then challenge the sufficiency of the petition without filing a proper protest was undemocratic.

Trustees discussed that, though the SRU application from TEENS, Inc. was previously approved, that does not mean that certain aspects of the child care facility proposal and lease of the land were not still negotiable.

Mayor Pro Tem Nichole Sterling moved to deny Ordinance 861 and to approve Resolution 2024-21: the BOT voted unanimously to deny repealing the previous approval of the TEENS, Inc. SRU and to bring the matter to a special election, to be held on July 30.

The Board also voted on Ordinance 863, which extends the moratorium on all Short Term Rental (STR) licenses to August 4, 2024. The moratorium is necessary while the Board completes the drafting of new STR regulations within Nederland Municipal Code (NMC).

Due to the moratorium being classified as an “emergency,” six of the seven Trustees were required to vote to approve the moratorium in order for it to pass.

Trustees voted unanimously to approve Ordinance 863.

The BOT discussed Ordinance 862, which establishes a plastic bag fee and a polystyrene product ban for the Town of Nederland, enforcing state legislation that became effective on January 1, 2024.

The ordinance seeks to amend sections of Article VII, Section 7 of NMC that pertain to single-use plastic bags and to the reduction of polystyrene pollution. Ordinance 862 states that starting July 1, 2024, Nederland’s retail stores and restaurants are prohibited from distributing plastic bags and any container that is made of polystyrene products, most notably Styrofoam.

Retail stores and restaurants can supply a reusable paper bag to customers for a ten-cent fee.

Trustee Tania Corvalan asked for clarification as to whether certain biodegradable bags fall under the Town’s definition of “reusable,” to which Fisher replied that she would need to confer with neighboring municipalities in order to see if such bags are permitted in their similar ordinances.

Trustee Luke Miller asked about the penalties involved with repeated violations of the ordinance, to which Town Attorney Jennifer Madsen answered that the second violation is punishable by a fine of $500.

Ordinance 862 will return to the BOT’s agenda during a future meeting, with additional information regarding whether biodegradable bags should be permitted.

Town Administrator Fisher asked the Board to authorize Town staff to use no more than $6,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds, currently allocated for affordable housing initiatives, in order to fund title searches for the Town’s 19 vacant parcels, as well as potentially to fund further legal assistance from Town Attorney Madsen pertaining to those titles.

The BOT approved Town staff to continue working on the title searches.

The Nederland Board of Trustees meets on the first and third Tuesday of every month. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 21, 2024, at 7 p.m. and can be attended either online or in person at the Nederland Community Center. For more information go to: https://townofnederland.colorado.gov/ board-of-trustees.