NEDERLAND - The Planning Commission provided their feedback on the draft of the Town’s Comprehensive Plan during their meeting on Wednesday, October 23, 2024. Some initial responses from Commissioners expressed trepidation regarding the Plan’s more assertive approach. 

Ayden Eickhoff of SE Group, the firm hired by the Town of Nederland to draft the Comprehensive Plan update, led Commissioners through a presentation on each of the draft’s chapter topics, each challenge facing those topics, and the recommendations on how to tackle those challenges. 

For a complete breakdown of the draft, please read “Opinions pave path to Comp Plan completion” here: https://www.themtnear.com/stories/opinions-pave-path-to-comp-plan-completion,20098 

Though the aim is for the plan to be approved and instituted by the end of the year, some Commissioners voiced their concerns about the speed at which the plan is heading to the finish line, as well as taking issue with the more proactive terms used within the plan.

“The draft, especially in the land use section, uses words like ‘action,’ ‘objective,’ ‘implement,’ ‘revise,’ ‘designate,’ where there should be terms such as ‘goals,’ ‘evaluate,’ ‘study,’ ‘identify,’” Commissioner Roger Cornell wrote in a public statement.

“In previous comp plans there were issues identified and then the Town used the Planning Commission to form groups to make the recommended changes to the goals and objectives,” Cornell continued.

Cornell, in a follow-up statement, reiterated his belief that the Commission was not included in SE Group’s year-long campaign of community and stakeholder engagement on the plan, nor were they made privy to the research involved in the creation of the plan, particularly in the chapters on land use and housing.  

“I don’t understand how there could be all this background research, and I know for a fact that I have never received a notice or emails letting us know that there would be a session for input and hearing from the public,” Cornell stated on behalf of the Commission.

“The Planning Commission needs to have several workshop meetings to review the document. By State Statute this is the Commission’s document to recommend to the BOT,” Cornell concluded.

Chair Steve Williams, who, along with Commissioners Cornell and Tom Mahowald, was absent for the October 23 meeting, also wrote a public statement regarding the assertiveness of SE Group’s plan. 

“I found it to read more like a ‘tactical’ plan with precise details and action items that typically are determined and implemented through the planning process,” Williams stated. 

“I’m afraid by putting too much detail in the Comp Plan, it might ‘lock’ the Town into having to implement these action items when in fact current factors could change and these items might not be valid or need to be modified, say, in five years down the road.” 

In response to Cornell’s and Chair Williams’ comments, Eickhoff reiterated that it was determined through public engagement, and meetings with Town staff and representatives, that the updated plan should be drafted in a more “clear and consistent” manner.

The draft presentation from SE Group specifically states that the new plan has been adjusted from the 2013 edition to emphasize “practicality and usefulness” by taking “clear stances on strategies and priorities.” 

“Ten months ago when we were talking to your group about what you wanted to see from this plan, we heard ‘action-oriented,’ we heard ‘specific,’ we didn’t want it to be ‘wishy-washy,’” Eickhoff explained. “I think there is a way to strike a balance here. We want to make sure that we are hearing the right level of specificity so that in our next draft we can address that tone.”  

Mayor Pro Tem Nichole Sterling addressed questions from fellow Commissioners regarding the research cited in the draft plan about the Town’s need for affordable housing.

“The Housing Needs Assessment was an extensive study, about a year long, that took in quite a bit of community feedback in terms of affordable housing being a high priority,” Sterling said, adding that all Commissioners should review the results of the assessment.  

Sterling, as the Board of Trustees (BOT) liaison to the Commission, restated the Board’s stance on the authoritative recommendations made within the Comprehensive Plan.

“The BOT did give very explicit instructions that this was supposed to be more tactical and as specific as possible; the BOT is definitely looking for something much more prescriptive than what we had received in the 2013 edition,” Sterling said.

 Vice Chair Jim Reis concluded the discussion by suggesting to Town staff and to SE Group to stall the progress of the plan. The Commission is requesting clarifying language, particularly in the land use section, to ensure that parts of the plan remain noncommittal.

“Maybe the PC and the BOT need to come together to make sure we’re asking for the same thing from the SE Group,” Reis said.

Reis also commented on both Cornell’s and Williams’s more than 20 years’ experience with the Town, both having worked on previous iterations of Nederland’s Comprehensive Plan.

“This plan doesn’t necessarily look like what they’ve done in the past and I think that’s why we’re getting some of that feedback. The main thing I would say is we need more time; the time frame seems a little compressed for us to get on the same page,” Reis continued.

Though Sterling noted that protocols for the creation of Comprehensive Plans have likely been updated in the last 20 years to require more specificity, the Commission was in agreement to recommend that a second draft of the plan be prepared. 

“We’re recommending that it be pushed out until after the first of the new year so that we can have a joint meeting with the BOT,” Reis said.    

The Planning Commission continued their meeting by approving Town Attorney Jennifer Madsen drafting an ordinance to amend the Use Group Table within Nederland Municipal Code to restrict specific mining operations on land zoned for Industrial use.

The particular uses that Town staff is recommending be restricted include the “processing of minerals and ores at a rate of 100 tons per day or less,” as well as the operation of any “warehousing and facilities for the manufacturing, fabrication, processing or assembly of products.” 

Attorney Madsen also led Commissioners in a discussion regarding the Town of Nederland adhering to the Natural Medicine Health Act (NMHA). The act, approved by the State of Colorado in 2022, allows for the use of natural medicine, such as psilocybin, to be administered by trained personnel at licensed health centers.  

Commissioners were asked whether the Town should consider adopting amendments to regulate where cultivation, manufacturing, and testing facilities, as well as the administering centers, can operate. 

The Commission determined that, considering the state is slowly rolling out the adoption of the act, the Town of Nederland should institute a one year moratorium on natural medicine operations, in order to allow time to wait and follow the lead of other Colorado municipalities regarding how to regulate adoption of the NMHA. 

The Nederland Planning Commission meets on the fourth Wednesday of every month. Their next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, November 27, at 7 p.m. Meetings can be attended online via WebEx. 

For more information: https://townofnederland.colorado.gov/planning-commission.