Dear Editor,

The Town of Nederland finally released their draft of the 2024 Comprehensive plan. As citizens of Nederland, we should be alarmed and disappointed.

The Comprehensive plan is extremely important, as it will be referenced as the basis for major town decisions in the next 10 years.

I don't believe the premise of the plan accurately reflects what the citizens of Nederland want. If you share the same concerns that I do, I provide town emails at the end for you to express your feedback.

The plan gives a lot of nice filler up front about community values and uses the first several pages to introduce feel-good buzz words. But it doesn’t take long to dive into what this document is really all about: increasing the population in Nederland. The entire plan makes a huge assumption that the foundation of the plan should be ‘population growth’.

When did we all agree that population growth should be the theme for the next 10 years in Nederland? Who gave the consultants this feedback and in which planning session was this discussed? I personally went to the Comp plan community input sessions, participated in the community polls the consultants put together for various topics, and provided feedback in all requested areas. I never saw a single item that solicited feedback on whether the town wanted to base their next 10-year plan on population growth.

There are obvious references to 'sustainable' growth, but growth whether we call it ‘sustainable’ or not, requires the use of more natural resources (water, building materials, energy), it includes a bigger population, more cars, more pollution, a bigger carbon footprint, and more consumption of open space.

I’d argue that we have no idea what ‘sustainable’ growth even means, let alone the ability to execute on a ‘sustainable’ growth plan.

I have lived in Colorado mountain towns my entire life. The places I have grown up in are unrecognizable now... Nearly every mountain town or area you can name in Colorado (Evergreen, Summit County, Crested Butte, Steamboat, etc.) has been completely transformed. They have gone from small towns with a vibrant community to sprawling, cultureless, and vacation destinations.   

Of the mountain towns that have access to a ski resort, Nederland has retained its character far longer than any other. We've largely been able to maintain our eclectic and eccentric culture, while the rest of Colorado has been inundated with intense population growth. We’ve been able to do this because we’ve limited the runaway growth that every other mountain town has experienced.  

If you asked town residents if they want to see the population grow up here, I'd bet well more than 50% would say "no". Personally, I haven't met a single resident hoping for more crowded trails, more cars, more traffic, more consumption of open space, and more strain on our limited resources.  

There is certainly validity to the need of having a diverse housing mix that satisfies the needs of people with diverse incomes and differing financial means. But setting a goal of having a diverse housing mix in the comp plan does not necessitate creating a plan based on significant population growth.

And of course the constant degradation of buildings, homes, and structures through natural entropy means things need to be periodically upgraded or replaced. But setting a goal for infrastructure improvement also does not necessitate creating a plan based on population growth. 

The current 2024 draft has also made a concerning departure from the main theme that the 2013 Comp plan emphasized the most: the continued stewardship of our environment and protection and preservation of our natural resources.

Why has the new 2024 plan abandoned this theme and replaced it with a plan centered around a theme for population growth?

I’d argue we’d be a lot better off if instead of our theme being population growth, the main theme of the comp plan for the next 10 years were any of the following (or a combination of the following):

·       Protect our environment, open spaces, and continue environmental stewardship

·       Preserve our natural resources

·       Prepare our town for the impacts of climate change

·       Invest in health and well-being for current citizens through investments in recreation and outdoor activities

·       Protect our town character and creativity through continued investments in arts and culture

·       Improve our town and the already existing infrastructure  

·       Improve the diversity of the housing mix in ways that do not include significant population growth

Before we make the mistake of ratifying this plan, how about we ask the citizens this very simple question: do we really want a comp plan that has population growth at its very core?

Your engagement in this matter will significantly affect what our town will look like in the future so please share your feedback and concern about this issue with the town at the following email addresses: bot@nederlandco.org & townadmin@nederlandco.org.

 Eric Davis

Nederland